

THE LIBRARY 

OF 

THE UNIVERSITY 

OF CALIFORNIA 

LOS ANGELES 



Bfc- ., •7.- '; . ■■ . 

0. BA 






THE SILENT MAN 



AND OTHER 



GE]MS OF SHORTHAND LITERATURE 



Collected and Printed 

by 
JOHN D. STRACHAN 



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Indianapolis, Ind. 
1922. 



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©I|0 #Ufnt ilatt. 

BY CHARLES CURRIER BEALE. 

If one has occasion to step into any court room 
where a session of the Massachusetts Superior 
Court is being held, he will see in full working 
order what is perhaps in many respects the most 
important portion of the judicial system of our 
commonwealth. Here he may see the machinery 
!^ of the law in active operation. The dignified jus- 
''^ tice seated on the bench, calmly hearing the tes- 
'r'S timony and dispassionately weighing it in mind; 
'"^1 the clerk with his documents spread around him; 
■' the court officers, ready to preserve the order and 
^ decorum appropriate to the halls of justice, the 
^ witness on the stand, timid, bold, or indifferent, 
^ volubly pouring forth his story at the request of 
^ his counsel or evasively avoiding a reply to the 
opposing attorney; the counsel on both sides alert 
i^ to take advantage of every opportunity, skilfully 
(:: leading on their own witnesses or sharply cross- 
2 examining those on the other side; the array of 
lawyers within the bar, watching the proceedings, 
the crowd of spectators on the back settees, fol- 
lowing with interest each detail of the trial — all of 



448543 



The Silent Man 



these are familiar sights to those who have occa- 
sion to visit court rooms. But there is still an- 
other actor in this diversified drama of right and 
wrong, of law and equity, of claims and counter 
claims. A little to one side you will see a silent 
man sitting at a little table, with pen in hand, who 
follows each spoken word with swift and noiseless 
movements, recording impartially the words of 
wisdom, wit and folly, which follow each other in 
rapid succession. Witnesses come and go, lawyers 
question and cross-question, objecft and argue, the 
court quietly announces his rulings, one case is 
ended and another begins; and through it all the 
silent man writes, unceasingly and with unslack- 
ened speed. Few of those who look upon him 
realize that they are beholding as near an approach 
to a miracle as unaided human hands and brains 
have thus far accomplished. There are many who 
hold that all who write shorthand are stenogra- 
phers; who class the sixteen year-old girl, pain- 
fully and slowly putting down in awkward symbols 
the carefully and deliberately dictated letter of the 
business man, at a speed little exceeding that of a 
skilful penman, with him who through years of 
study and unremitting toil has gained the wonder- 
ful art of verbatim reporting. As well as compare 
your six-year-old child, thumping on her toy pi- 
ano, with the marvelous masters of music who 



The Silent Man 



hold the world entranced with their skill and ge- 
nius. The ability of the one is as far removed 
from the ability of the other as the humblest mo- 
torman on the Boston elevated is from the presi- 
dent and guiding spirit of that vast corporation. 

Let me give you an idea of what is required of 
a court reporter. The average rate of speaking 
which he must record word for word in his note 
book is one hundred and fifty words per minute. 
To be sure, this speed is sometimes slackened to 
a hundred, but often increased to two hundred; 
and this average speed must be kept up hour aft- 
er hour under any and all conditions, with any 
and all kinds of language. The words of the En- 
glish language, as used in ordinary speech, will 
average at least five letters to a word. These five 
letters in the ordinary long hand will require at 
least twenty distindl motions of the pen. The 
useful art of shorthand has condensed this to an 
average of three movements to a word. In other 
words, in order to write legible shorthand at the 
rate of 150 words per minute the writer must skil- 
fully execute certain characters requiring 450 dis- 
tindl movements of the pen to a minute, and must 
keep this enormous speed up hour after hour if 
need be. Often a whole day's work will consist 
of unbroken testimony. Those unfamiliar with 
our duties say the pay we receive is exorbitant 



8 The Silent Man 

because we are actually working in court only five 
and one-half hours. True, but in these five and 
one-half hours there is no rest for the stenographer, 
and if we take the trouble to perform a simple adl 
of multiplication we find his flying fingers have 
recorded in that short day of apparently easy work 
a total of fifty thousand words, involving one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand distindl movements of the 
pen. The fabled labors of Hercules sink into in- 
significance as compared with what he has accom- 
plished. Every day he sets down an amount of 
matter equal to a respectable sized novel. The 
pages of the note books he fills in a year, if placed 
continuously, would stretch from the Gilded Dome 
to Senator Lodge's home in Nahant. If the char- 
acters were in one contini.ous line it would reach 
from the farthest point of Cape Cod to the most 
distant of the Berkshire Hills, and span the whole 
of this good old Commonwealth with the mystic 
symbols of the silent scribe. No one human be- 
ing could speak the words he must unceasingly 
and uncomplainingly write. A palsied tongue and 
a paralyzed throat would end the speaker's efforts 
in a few days or weeks; yet the hands of the ready 
writer toils on, guided by an intelligent brain, and 
supplimented by an ear that must hear and recog- 
nize each and every utterance, whether it be the 
burr of the Scotchman, or the brogue of the Irish- 



The Silent Man 



man, the lisp of the Welshman, or the nasal drawl 
of our own New England. The broken speech of 
the Russian Jew, the liquid patois of the swarthy 
son of sunny Italy, the guttral growl of the Ger- 
man, and the mincing tongue of the Frenchman, 
all mingle in one ever-changing lingual pot-pourri, 
that puzzles alike the judge, lawyers, and the list- 
eners, but which the stenographer must get wheth- 
er or not. The loquacious native of the Emerald 
Isle is checked in his torrent of words by the re- 
mark from the judge, "The witness talks so fast 
the court cannot understand him; will the stenog- 
rapher please read the answer?" or, the sunburned 
daughter of the Mediterranean, who amply makes 
makes up in rapidity of utterance for her imper- 
fect knowledge of our vernacular, fails to make 
herself understood by the counsel, who turns non- 
chalantly to the silent worker and say, "Mr. Re- 
porter, will you kindly read what the witness 
said?" 

But enough of this side of the picture ; there is 
another view I wish to present to you, another 
Herculean labor, skillfully performed and scantily 
recompensed, which awaits the silent man at the 
end of his day's work in court — the transcription 
of his notes. Fortunately not all that goes down 
in these never-ending note books has to be re- 
written for the eye of the judge or lawyers. There 



lo The Sile7it Man 



is an end to the endurance of even stenographers, 
and I fear that no human being with human nerves 
and human need for sleep could cope with that 
task. But a fairly generous portion has to be tran- 
scribed on the writing-machine ; and again the 
tired fingers must fly in swift staccato until the 
work is accomplished. Most of the work must of 
necessity be done at night, by the flickering flame 
of the gas jet or the incandescent brilliance of the 
electric light. Far into the night must the click 
of the typewriter keys and the drone of the dic- 
tator extend. The judge and the lawyers, the 
witnesses and the spectators, can go to their homes 
and enjoy the quiet of their firesides or that rec- 
reation of mind which is equally beneficial to the 
body; but the stenographer must work, though 
nerves throb and pulses flag, though tired eyes 
will close rebelliously, and the faithful hands al- 
most refuse to do the bidding of the exhausted 
brain. And yet good lawyers have been keen to 
say that our prices are exorbitant. But it is the 
price of blood ! It is the giving of one's vitality, 
both of mind and body, of a mind and body trained 
and educated to a point beyond which danger lies. 
And what a training and what an education ! The 
whole range of sciences is comprised in the knowl- 
edge that a good court stenographer must acquire. 
Today comes the skilled physician with his expert 



The Silent Man 1 1 

testimony and his learned disquisitions upon hys- 
tero-neurasthenia and cerebo-spinal meningitis, 
ransacking the dead past of Rome and Greece for 
terms to fit modern ailments and fin de siecic sur- 
gery. Tomorrow the electrician with his talk of 
mysterious elements and forces, his microfarads 
and his electro-statics. Again, the mechanical ex- 
pert, glibly describing the complicated construc- 
tion and workings of appliances and instruments 
whose very names are familiar only to the initi- 
ated. Add to a knowledge of these various sub- 
jects sufiicient at least to recognize their nomen- 
clature, a fair knowledge of the classics, a famil- 
iarity with the most important modern languages, 
a fair amount of legal learning, a reading wide 
enough to recognize a quotation and assign it to 
its source, whether it be Shakespeare, Browning, 
the Bible or the Zend Avesta, a perfecft knowledge 
of geography, a modicum of history, a fluency 
with figures and an absolute command of the in- 
tricacies of English speech — spelling, punctuation 
and grammar — and you have the foundation of a 
stenographic career, on which ten or twenty years' 
active practice of your profession will enable you 
to build the superstructure of success. 



®I|0 l^tfitoriral 'Baint of i'l|0rtl|anti. 

BY FRANK E. NEVINS, ST. LOUIS. 

The shorthand writers of the world have con- 
tributed, and are contributing, more material to 
the histories of nations than all that historians 
have written from the time of Xenophon and Plu- 
tarch down to the beginning of the last half cen- 
tury. What an invaluable treasure it would be 
to us now, and with what interest and profit could 
we read the common-place, every-day utterances 
of the Roman senate of the time of Cato, or the 
Grecian debates of the time of Pericles. A tran- 
script of our own Congressional Record made from 
day to day by our Congressional reporters, is a 
complete compendium of the political, financial 
and moral condition of our country, more perfecl 
and comprehensive than can be found in any book. 
It has been said by Gibbon that "History has 
never, perhaps, suffered a greater or more irrep- 
arable injury than the loss of a curious register 
bequeathed by Augustus to the Roman senate, in 
which that experienced prince accurately bal- 
anced the revenues and expenses of the Roman 
empire. Deprived of that clear and comprehen- 



TTie Historical Value of Shorthand 13 

sive estimate historians are reduced to the collec- 
tion of the few imperfedl hints from such of the 
Ancients as have accidentally turned aside from 
the narrative of splendid achievements of the na- 
tion to the more useful parts of history." If the 
loss of a single document, about the equivalent 
to a president's message to Congress, can occasion 
so much regret, we can see what a vast source of 
information a Congressional Record, so to speak, 
furnished by skillful shorthand writers of the pro- 
ceedings of the Roman senate of that day, would 
be in our time. Think for a moment what a pict- 
ure a shorthand report of one of the philippics 
of Demosthenes with all the cries, voices, inter- 
ruptions, and plaudits of the multitude thrown in, 
in the way modern speech is now reported, would 
furnish us of those dim times ! 

In the memoirs of the life and writings of Ed- 
ward Gibbon, the author of the great work known 
as the "History of the Decline and Fall of the 
Roman Empire," I find this interesting paragraph 
concerning the shorthand writers of the date about 
1784, in England. Mr. Gibbon says: "Before my 
departure from England, I was present at the au- 
gust spectacle of Mr. Hastings' trial in Westmin- 
ster Hall. It is not my province to absolve or 
condemn the Governor of India, but Mr. Sheri- 
dan's eloquence commanded my applause; nor 



14 The Historical Value of Shorthand 

could I hear without emotion the personal com- 
pliment which he paid me in the presence of the 
British nation. From this display of genius, which 
blazed forth for four successive days, 1 shall stoop 
to a very mechanical circumstance. As I was 
waiting in the manager's box I had the curiosity 
to inquire of a shorthand writer how many words 
a ready and rapid orator might pronounce in an 
hour. 'From seven thousand to seven thousand, 
five hundred,' was his answer. The medium of 
seven thousand, two hundred will afford a hun- 
dred and twenty words a minute, and two words 
in each second. But this computation will only 
apply to the English language." The estimate 
of the gentleman who gave Mr. Gibbon this in- 
formation is about the standard that is preserved 
today. One hundred and twenty words a minute 
is still thought to be about the average rate of 
utterance of our best speakers, and at that time 
it was about the extent of the capacity of the 
ablest shorthand writers to take down. 

Within the last twenty-five or thirty-five years 
shorthand writing has developed wonderfully in 
the United States. Mr. Benn Pitman, of Cincin- 
nati, brother of Isaac Pitman, the inventor of pho- 
nography, was probably the first really accom- 
plished shorthand writer who ever did any practical 
work in the civil and military courts in this country. 



The Historical Value of Shorthand 15 

It is true that there were some very able and learn- 
ed gentlemen in Washington connected with the 
press, in the early days of this country, who gained 
great notoriety and some money by reporting some 
of the congressional speeches of our great men in 
such a manner that by careful revision by the au- 
thor, and the filling in of words and sentences 
here and there, and the rewriting of certain par- 
agraphs, they were able by that means, two or 
three weeks after a speech was delivered, to hand 
down to posterity a tolerably accurate report of a 
speech as it was spoken. In our day the common- 
place utterances of common-place politicians, on 
common-place subjects, as well as the eloquent 
bursts of our most accomplished orators, are spread 
out with entire accuracy and at full length in the 
Congressional Record on the day following the 
debate. Posterity will be at no trouble to find out 
hereafter and forevermore what our statesmen 
and politicians thought and said on any given 
subjedt. 

But it is not in this field of usefulness, how- 
ever important it may be, that the best results of 
the great army of indefatigable shorthand work- 
ers in this country are obtained. It is in the courts 
of law and in the counting rooms and business 
offices throughout the land, that their usefulness 
is felt. They are as indespensable as the telegraph 



1 6 The Historical l^ahie of Shorthand 

or the telephone, and of vast consequence in their 
respective fields of labor. No really expert ste- 
nographer — whether within legislative halls, in 
the courts of law, in the lecture room or in the 
counting room, need be ashamed of his employ- 
ment. His active brain, clear head and tireless 
fingers are an indespensable part of the machin- 
ery of the great political, financial and business 
world of the day, and the true artist in this line 
of employment will always find due appreciation 
and reasonable compensation for his services. 

— Ike Pho7iographic Jotirnal. 



^^ 



BY GEORGE MAYNARD. 



Shorthand is by no means a modern invention, 
as everyone at all familiar with its history well 
knows. It is commonly traced back to the days 
of the Greeks and the Romans, and passages of 
the classical authors are alluded to, to show its 
use and origin am.ong them, prior to the time of 
Christ. 

While all this is probably true, the idea can 
hardly be said to be original with them. The 
theory upon which shorthand is based is as old as 
the art of writing of most of the earlier nations 
of antiquity. 

The writing of words by their consonant out- 
lines and the omission of vowels, has always been 
common among the Oriental nations, in all the 
ages of the past. The cuneiform inscriptions, 
made by the ancient Babylonians from one thou- 
sand to two thousand years before the time of 
Christ, and whose decipherment has been one of 
the triumphs of modern times, shows something 
of this, while it was perhaps more strikingly illus- 
trated in the writing of the Hebrews and Arabs. 



The Aniiquity of Shorthavd 



Green, in his Hebrew grammar, says: "The 
(ancient Hebrew) alphabet consisted exckisively 
of consonants, since these were regarded as a suf- 
ficiently exacft representation of the syllables into 
which, in Hebrew, they invariably enter. And 
the omission of the vowels occasioned less embar- 
rassment because, in the Semitic family of lan- 
guages generally, they form no part, properly 
speaking, of the radical structure of the word. 
Modern Hebrew is commonly written and read 
without the (vowel) points; and the same is true 
of its kindred tongues, the Syriac and Arabic." 
It was not until the seventh century of our era, 
that a system of characters exactly distinguishir.g 
the vowels of the Hebrew language was invented. 

In languages where the consonants are pro- 
nounced prominently, and the vowels are slurred, 
this is quite natural, but in such languages as the 
Spanish, where the vowel sounds are prominent, 
and the consonants are slurred, a difficulty would 
seem to arise in this respect; and it has always 
seemed to me, that a system of shorthand adapted 
to such a language as the English, was rather illy 
fitted to represent such languages as the Spanish, 
or Hawaiian, where the vowel sounds predomi- 
nate to a greater or less degree. The Gabels- 
berger system, which has been so extensively 
adapted to the European languages, does not ap- 



The Antiquity of Shorthand ig 

pear to stand much chance in our country, in com- 
petition with the simplicity and beauty of phonog- 
raphy, any more than the German text can ulti- 
mately compete with the plain and easily read 
alphabet used by the English and Latin races. 

The earliest specimens of writing in any nation, 
have always had in them something of the nature of 
shorthand. Brevity of expression is character- 
istic of them all. In most instances, the first be- 
ginnings have been some kind of picture writing. 
This is seen in the hieroglyphics of Egypt, and 
in the picture writing of the Indians. In all these 
cases, what is sought, is to briefly indicate an idea 
in some way, so that it may be communicated to 
others. Picture writing is the most natural tiling 
for any people to attempt, and from very crude 
and simple forms of it, elaborate systems have, in 
many cases, been educed. Such were the old 
Egyptian hieroglyphics; and when they became 
too cumbersome and intricate for the demands of 
a more advanced civilization, an abbreviation and 
simplification of them came into use, which stcod, 
I may say, in about the same relation to the old 
forms, that shorthand does to our longhand. And 
from them, in later days, arose the yet more simple 
Phoenician alphabet, upon which that of the 
Greeks and Romans, and subsequently our own 
was founded. 



20 The Antiquity of Shorthand 

Every step in the line of development has been 
towards simplicity, and the process is still going 
on. The invention of phonography was a great 
step forward, but who shall say that it was the 
last ? I think we may look forward in the future 
to as great improvement in our method of writ- 
ing, as has been accomplished in the past, though 
not in our days. "Necessity is the mother of in- 
vention. ' ' When the human race had developed, 
in ancient times, to that degree that it needed 
some method of written communication, it in- 
vented one. When a better one was needed, the 
old one was improved; and so the process goes on, 
and will go on, through centuries to come. 

For the use of the Egyptian, his hieroglyphics 
were all-sufficient; for us they would be entirely 
inadequate. For us plionography fills the bill 
better than anything else. But undoubtedly there 
will come a time in the future when the phonog- 
rapher of the period will look upon nineteenth 
century shorthand writers as old fossils, and will 
laugh at the boasted "brevity" and call "abbre- 
viated shorthand" altogether too cumbersome for 
his necessities. 

However, we need not laugh too much at the 
shorthand of antiquity. If we may credit the re- 
marks of the classical writers on the subjedl, it 
was a much more efficient medium of verbatim 



The Antiquity of Shorthand 21 

reporting than we should be led to suppose from 
the somewhat crude specimens that have come 
down to us. There would seem to be circum- 
stantial evidence that some sort of shorthand 
writing was employed, not only by the Greeks 
and Romans, but by the people in the Bible coun- 
tries, — I mean some system briefer than the ordi- 
nary Hebrew writing. Else, how was it possible 
for the extempore speeches given in the Script- 
ures to have been preserved? Supposing them 
to be genuine records and faithful reports, it would 
seem impossible for some of them to have been 
written out from memory, either on the same day, 
or fifty years afterwards. Perhaps they had a 
system in those daj'S, even better than we now 
have, which may have become one of the "lost 
arts. " I do not think it is unreasonable to sup- 
pose that a people who had the ingenuity to tem- 
per copper to the hardness of our best steel, and 
made malleable glass, would have been entirely 
at a loss to invent some system of writing that 
would answer the requirements of verbatim re- 
porting. Perhaps, some day, all these questions 
will be solved, and we shall know what the pro- 
cess was in all these cases. 

It has lately been suggested that the Record- 
ing Angel uses shorthand ! Perhaps he was the 
original inventor of the art, and may have been 



2 2 The Antiquity of Shorthand 

the official reporter of those grand specimens of 
oratory recorded in verse for us by the late illus- 
trious John Milton. Whatever may be the facts 
in this case, there can be no doubts about the 
Antiquity of Shorthand. 

— The Phonographic Journal , 
April, 1895. 



^#b 



BY BUGENE L. DIDER. 



When shorthand was a mere collection of arbi- 
trary signs without method or beauty, Roman 
emperors dehghted in the possession of so valu- 
able an accomplishment; but now shorthand is 
within reach of every school boy, and phonogra- 
phy is as much superior to the shorthand which 
Tiro invented and Augustus and Titus practiced, 
as the modern chemistry of Liebig and Faraday 
is superior to the crudities of medseval alchemy. 
"Alchemy was for the recluse, chemistry for the 
many." The necessity for a swifter method of 
writing than that in ordinary use had been felt in 
the time of the Greek and Roman republics, and 
several kinds of shorthand were invented. 

Diogenes L,aertius asserts that Xenophon first 
took down the sayings of Socrates in shorthand. 
The Romans claim for themselves the honor of the 
invention, and the poet Enniusis said to have de- 
vised a system of shorthand by which the speeches 
of the most famous orators were reported ; but 
Plutarch rejects Ennius, and gives the credit to 
Tiro, a freedman of Cicero, by whose system the 



24 The Curiosities of Shorthand 

celebrated speech of Cato against Catiline was 
recorded. Ovid says that Julius Csesar wrote to 
some of his friends in shorthand. At the court 
of Augustus shorthand writing was in great favor. 
The Emperor Maecenas and others were profi- 
cient in the art. The philosopher Seneca added 
5,000 characters to those of Tiro. Titus esteemed 
shorthand very highly, and placed it among the 
most interesting of his amusements. 

Until the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth 
century shorthand continued to be held in great 
favor by the great and learned; but from the fifth 
to the fifteenth century there is not a trace of it 
to be found. During these ten centuries the 
sword was "mightier than the pen," and outside 
the monastaries, little or no attention was paid to 
writing of any kind. The invention of printing, 
in 1440, was the chief cause in producing a revi- 
val of letters, which has continued without inter- 
ruption from that time, until we live to witness 
the splendid results at the present day. 

The reign of Queen Elizabeth was distinguished 
by an array of literary genius which recalled the 
Augustan age. The works of Shakespeare , Bacon , 
Ben Johnson, Spenser, and Sidney gave England 
a proud place in the world of letters. The inter- 
est which began to be taken in legal and parlia- 
mentary affairs at that time drew attention to the 



The Curiosities of Shorthand 25 

necessity for a more rapid method of writing than 
that in ordinary use. 

In 1588 Dr. Timothy Bright published a trea- 
tise on shorthand, under the title of "Characterie; 
Art of short, swift, and secret writing by charac- 
ters. Printed by J. Windet, with the privilege 
of the Queen, forbidding all others to print the 
same." This was a very crude system of short- 
hand, and attracted but little attention. The 
work was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. It has 
now become so scarce that only three copies are 
known to be in existence. During the next hun- 
dred years thirteen different systems were pub- 
lished. 

Shorthand has always been highly appreciated 
by the learned. Locke, in his famous treatise on 
"Education," says: "Shorthand may perhaps 
be worth the learning, both for dispatch in what 
men write for their memory, and concealment of 
what they would not have be open to every eye. ' ' 
Watts, in his work on the mind, advises students 
to acquire a knowledge of shorthand to facilitate 
their labors. Reading without making extracts, 
will produce little fruit; judicious selections save 
the repeated perusal of entire works, and are a 
great assistance in literary labors. By employing 
shorthand in making these extracts, a small li- 
brary can be collected in one volume, which may 



26 The Curiosities of Shortha7id 



be carried in the pocket, and will be found very 
convenient in travelling. Another advantage 
which shorthand confers upon students and au- 
thors is the rapidity with which it enables them 
to commit their thoughts to paper. By this means 
one may treasure up for future use hundreds of 
valuable ideas which are suggested by the reading 
of books and the conversation of men, and which 
would otherwise be lost forever, for want of time 
to jot them down. All writers on the subject of 
education recommend composition as indespens- 
able to the student's improvement. It was a wise 
saying of an ancient philosopher, that whenever 
he wanted to know anything of a subjedl, he wrote 
upon it. Jean Paul says "Nothing can exceed the 
importance of writing. A man may read for thirty 
years with less profit than if he wrote for half that 
period. ' ' But perfection in composition is reached 
only after much and diligent labor; there must be 
careful revision and frequent alteration, and here 
again shorthand affords abundant facilities to the 
writer. The irksomeness of longhand in compo- 
sition is shown in the following passage form 
Goethe: "I was so accustomed to repeat and sing 
to myself, without being able to recall it, that I 
sometimes ran to my desk and did not even allow 
myself time to place a sheet of paper straight be- 
fore beginning, but would, without moving from 



The Cia'iosities of Shortha?id 27 



my place, write down an entire composition across 
the paper diagonally. Even then I preferred using 
a pencil, as it moved more easily than a pen." 
What a boon shorthand would have been to such 
a man ! 

In 1758 Mr. Angell published a system of short- 
hand, under the title of "Stenography; or Short- 
hand improved: being the most compendious and 
easy method heretofore extant." The author 
asked the favor of a preface for his work from Dr. 
Johnson. Johnson's sagacious mind fully appre- 
ciated the importance of shorthand to civilized 
society, and he listened to Angell with much in- 
terest. The latter having professed his ability to 
write from another's reading every word that 
should be uttered, the doctor reached down a 
book, and requested Angell to write as he read. 
The experiment was tried, but the stenographer 
failed to perform what he had undertaken. 

The great defecft of all these early systems of 
shorthand was the emploj-ment of arbitrary signs 
to express phrases in frequent use, and the re- 
taining of the Roman alphabet, instead of adopt- 
ing one better suited to the requirements of the 
Knglish language. These defects were remedied, 
to some extent, by a system which John Byrom 
invented. Byrom was a poet and a Cambridge 
scholar, and when quite a young man wrote a 



28 The Curiosities of Shorthand 

pastoral and several essa5'S, which appeared in 
the Spectator. After he had perfected his system 
of shorthand, he began teaching it, first in Man- 
chester, his native place, and afterward in Lon- 
don. His terms were five guineas for each pupil, 
and he made each of them promise that he would 
not impart his knowledge to another. Several of 
his pupils were persons of high rank and great 
influence. On one occasion Byrom was reporting 
orator Henley, who requested him to desist. The 
stenographer refused, whereupon Mr. Henley 
went on so much faster than usual that Byrom 
could not follow him and so the reporter was stop- 
ped in a novel way. This little anecdote shows 
that stenography was not equal to the requirments 
of verbatim reporting when the speaker was rapid. 
The proceedings of Congress were not fully re- 
ported before the time of Gales and Seaton, of the 
National Intelligencer. Mr. Gales devoted him- 
self to the Senate, and Mr. Seaton to the House. 
We are indebted to them for many of the early 
speeches of Clay, Webster, Calhoun, and other 
American orators of the first half of the present 
century. The speeches made by Webster and 
Hayne, during their celebrated intellectual com- 
bat in the United States Senate, were preserved 
from oblivion by Mr. Gales, whose notes, hand- 
somely bound and enriched with Mr. Webster's 



The Curiosities of Shorthand 29 

annotations, are kept as a precious memento in 
the family library. In connection with this, the 
following anecdote may, perhaps, be read with 
some interest: The day Mr. Webster made his 
reply to the attack of Mr. Hayne, of South Caro- 
lina, Joseph Gales met him as he was going to the 
Capitol, and inquired how long he intended to 
speak. "About half an hour," was the reply. 
The editor's duties at that time were pressing, but 
he ventured to take so much time from them. Mr. 
Webster, however, directly afterward was joined 
by Judge Story, who said he thought the time had 
come for Mr. Webster to give the country his 
views on the Constitution. To this proposition 
the senator assented. Mr. Gales took up his 
pencil unaware of this new arrangement, and un- 
conscious of the lapse of time under the enchant- 
ment of the orator, he continued to write until 
the close of the speech. But when he came to 
look at the notes, the magnitude of the task of 
writing them out appeared so formidable, that he 
shrank from it as an impossibility. Soon after- 
wards Mr. Webster called on Gales and requested 
a report of his speech. "I have the notes," said 
the reporter, "but I shall never have time to write 
them out. ' ' This led to some remonstrance and 
persuasion, but the overworked editor stood firm. 
At this juncture Mrs. Gales came forward, and 



3© The Curiosities of Shorthand 

offered to undertake the task, saying that she 
could decipher her husband's shorthand. She 
had heard the speech and the resistless sweep of 
its argument, the gorgeous magnificence of its 
imagery were yet vivid in her mind. In the course 
of a week Mr. Gales submitted to Mr. Webster 
the report of his speech in the handwriting of his 
wife. Scarcely a word needed to be changed; and 
soon a set of diamonds accompanied the rich thanks 
of the eloquent statesman. Thus was saved to 
literature the most memorable oration of the Amer- 
ican Senate. 

Gales and Seaton did not make full reports of 
all the proceedings of Congress. As a general 
rule, they published only running reports; on 
special occasions, however, the proceedings were 
given in entire. At the present time, all the pro- 
ceedings of both houses are reported and published 
next morning. When the members retire to their 
homes to dine and rest after their labors, the hard- 
est work of the reporters may be said to begin. 
From the phonographic hieroglyphics they write 
out full reports. They have frequently reported 
and prepared for the press ten closely printed 
columns in a single day. How they bear up un- 
der the pressure it is hard to explain ; but they 
seem to be as bright and as healthy as any of the 
members whose wise saws and foolish speeches 



The Curiosities of Shorthand 3 1 

they send to the waiting world, 

Charles Dickens was a shorthand reporter be- 
fore he became a novelist, and he gives in "David 
Copperfield" an amusing account of his hero's at- 
tempt to learn shorthand, taken, no doubt, from 
his own experience. Dickens spent eighteen 
months in studying shorthand, and at the age of 
nineteen began to do the parliamentary reporting 
for the True Su7i. He was one of the best re- 
porters that ever sat in the gallery of the House 
of Commons. He left school when he was fifteen 
years old, and entered the law office of Mr. Black- 
more. Here he remained from May, 1827, until 
November of the following year. He was not a 
student, but a sort of second-rate clerk. During 
this time he was accustomed to steal off with a 
fellow-clerk to attend a small theatre near by, not 
infrequently taking part in the performances. 
The succeeding eighteen months were passed in 
the study of shorthand — a profession much hard- 
er to master in those days than now. He said, 
in a speech at a dinner given by the Newspaper 
Press Fund in 1865, that he had often transcribed 
for the printer from his shorthand notes import- 
ant public speeches in which the slightest mistake 
would have been severely compromising to a young 
man, writing on the palm of his hand by the Hght 
of a dark -lantern in a postchaise and four, gallop- 



32 The Curiosities of Shorthand 



ing through a wild country and through the dead 
hour of the night at the then surprising rate of 
fifteen miles an hour. 

Phonography was invented in 1837, by Isaac 
Pitman, a school teacher of Bath, England. It 
combines a perfecft phonographic representation 
of the English language, expressed by the sim- 
plest signs, formed of straight lines, curves, dots 
and dashes. Phonography meets all the require- 
ments for a complete philosophical system of writ- 
ing. It is easy to learn, easy to write, easy to read, 
and capable of reporting the most rapid speakers. 
The old systems of shorthand were so full of per- 
plexing and arbitrary characters and complicated 
contractions that it took years of intense and un- 
ceasing study to acquire a proficiency in any of 
them, and even then it was not possible to make 
a verbatim report of any except the most moderate 
speakers. Isaac Pitman had studied one of the 
best systems of stenography for seven years, and 
could write only one hundred words a minute. 
And, unless it were written with the utmost care, 
stenography was as hard to read as the characters 
inscribed on the tombs found in the pyramids of 
Egypt. 

A shorthand reporter should be clever and in- 
telligent. There is a story of an uneducated re- 
porter who is said to have rendered the well-known 



The Curiosities of Shorthand 33 

Latin quotation, "Amiens Plato, Amicus Soc- 
rates sed major Veritas," as follows: "I may cuss 
Plato, I may cuss Socrates, said Major Veritas." 
Elihu Burritt, the learned blacksmith, once closed 
an address with this statement, "Labor — thought- 
honored labor— ma}^ be the only earthly potentate 
that shall be crowned on this continent." He 
was surprised and disgusted to find it printed in 
next morning's papers, "Labor thought-honored, 
may be the nail lately patented that shall be 
crowned on this continent. " Rev. Dr. Edwin H, 
Chapin was one of the most rapid speakers of his 
time, and he was a terror to the general run of 
reporters. Once in a sermon, he used the follow- 
ing language: "Christianity has been the ori- 
flamme of freedom in all ages. " The ignorant 
reporter rendered it thus: "Christ has been the 
horn-blower of freedom in all ages. ' ' 

It has been the habit of studious men, both in 
ancient and in modern times, to read with pen in 
hand, to be ready to note down any particular 
fa(5l or gem of thought which seemed to them 
worthy of preservation. Brutus, the night be- 
fore the battle of Pharsalia, which was to decide 
his earthly fate, was found in his tent reading a 
favorite author and taking notes. Pliny the Elder 
never travelled without books and conveniences 
for making memoranda. The elegant Addison 



34 The Ctiriosities of Shorthand 

had collected six volumes of extracts before he 
began the Spectator. Southey, one of the first 
scholars of his age, kept a commonplace book, in 
which he wrote choice extracts from whatever 
books he perused. The great obstacle to this 
transcribing from books is the vast amount of time 
and labor which it involves. This may be obviated 
by the use of phonography. In reading the news- 
papers and magazines we often meet with a sug- 
gestive thought or striking facft, which, unless it 
is recorded at the time, passes away forever. 
The accomplished scholar William Wert, said : 
"There is not a facft within the whole circle of 
human observation, not even a fugitive anecdote 
which you read in a newspaper or hear in con- 
versation, that will not come into play sometime 
or other, and occasions will arise when they will 
involuntarily present their dim shadows in the 
train of your thinking and reasoning as belonging 
to that train, and you will regret that you cannot 
recall them more distinctly." Authors who are 
acquainted with phonography prize it as one of 
the most valuable of their acquisitions. By using 
it in literary compositions the drudgery of writing 
is, in a great measure, removed. What a great 
assistance shorthand would have been to Sir Walt- 
er Scott in gathering materials for his enchanting 
romances; or to the lamented historian, Prescott, 



The Curiosities of Shortha7id 35: 

in preparing his magnificent works. Thomas H.. 
Benton said, when presented with a verbatim re- 
port of one of his masterly speeches, taken by a 
httle boy, "Had phonography been known forty 
years ago, it would have saved me twenty j^ears 
of hard labor. ' ' 

Thousands who look with the utmost indiffer- 
ence upon phonography are daily enjoying the 
benefits of the art. If they have the satisfaction 
of reading in the morning paper a full report of 
the proceedings of a public meeting held the night 
before — together with the eloquent words of the 
speakers, as they fell fresh from their lips — they 
owe it to phonography. If they have an oppor- 
tunity, in interesting and important trials, of ex- 
amining the evidence and of reading the speeches 
of counsel and the charges of the judge, they owe 
it to phonography. If new ardor be added to their 
patriotism by the thrilling speeches of Clay, or 
the sublime eloquence of Webster, they owe it to 
shorthand. If their hearts are melted by reading 
the tender and persuasive language of the preach- 
er, they owe it to phonography. In short, they 
are indebted to phonography for the clear and full 
reports of scientific and literary associations, the 
anniversary of religious societies, the proceedings 
of Congress, and for all "those brilliant and spirit 
stirring efEusions which the circumstances of the 



36 The Curiosities of ShortJiaiid 



present times combine to draw forth and which 
the press transmits to us with such astonishing 
celerity, warm from the Hps and instincfl with the 
soul of the speaker." 

When we remember the wonderful advances 
which shorthand has made in the past few j^ears, 
may we not reasonably suppose that the time is 
not far distant when this beautiful and philosoph- 
ical method of writing will become universal, and 
that the age which has witnessed the triumph of 
the telegraph, the telephone, and the steam-engine 
will abandon a style of writing which was thought 
cumbersome in the time of Caesar? 

The Writer. 



"S^ 



BY GEORGE MAYNARD. 



The world in which we live is a world of pro- 
gress and evolution. Through all the ages since 
man's first appearance on the planet, he has been 
slowly developing his faculties and energies, and 
attaining higher degrees of knowledge and power, 

I hold in my hand a flint arrow-head, that some 
primitive man used in the chase or in war. It 
served his purpose well, and was, in his day, as 
great an invention as the modern rifle is with us. 
It maj^ have helped supply him with the necessi- 
ties or even the luxuries of his life; or it may have 
helped him attain that honor and power, for which 
even the savage strove. His wants were few, 
compared with ours — and perhaps more easily 
satisfied. Writing v/as unknown to him, and he 
felt no need of such a method of communicating 
his ideas. Such was the condition of all primitive 
peoples. 

But there came a day in the world's history, 
when something of the kind became a necessity ; 
and a rude method of writing was at length 
evolved by the brain of some one a little in advance 



8543 



38 The Development of PJionography 

of his fellows, mentally. And so it went on, till 
the art became so highly developed, that the his- 
torian and the poet ceased to trust their prodvic- 
tions to the uncertain medium of oral tradition, 
and Manetho, Herodotus, and Homer left to the 
world the written record of the exploits of gods 
and men. 

But there came a time when the voice of the 
orator became a force as potent as the warrior's 
arm; and a Demosthenes, or a Cicero, swayed the 
minds of men with magic power, rousing them up 
to war, or calming and curbing their fierce ener- 
gies to paths of peace. Then there arose the ne- 
cessity that some means should be found more 
efficient than the cumbersome chirography of an- 
tiquity, whereby these masterly efforts of genius 
might be preserved for future ages. And thus 
crude forms of shorthand writing came into use, 
and probably answered the purpose for which they 
were designed. 

And one, who has studied the history of this 
art, knows how it has since developed by slow 
degrees to its present state of perfection and effi- 
ciency. The shorthand of the present day is an- 
swering fairly well the requirements of the age in 
which we live ; but, with all its improvements, it 
is still a progressive science. Every year we see 
some advance made in the art. New text-books 



The Development of Photiography 39 

are appearing, showing the results of experience 
and thought among shorthand writers and pub- 
hshers; and much of the rubbish and debris of the 
past is cast aside, Hke dead wood stranded upon 
the shores of time. 

While Pitmanic phonography, from its simplic- 
ity, its conformity to natural laws, and its ease of 
execution, seems destined to be the future short- 
hand of the world, it would be folly to suppose 
that, in its best forms, it has as yet reached the 
ultima Thide of development, or that the exigen- 
cies of another half century will not require its 
further improvement. 

Why, then, should not the phonographic fra- 
ternity work together towards that high end and 
aim, instead of pulling apart and antagonizing? 
Let them compare notes, and discuss the results 
of their individual experience, and their thinking 
upon matters pertaining to the art — not in a spirit 
of rivalry, but in mutual good-will and a desire to 
elevate the science to yet higher planes of devel- 
opment. 

However much of a genius any one man may 
be, 1 do not believe it possible for him to so thor- 
oughly perfe(5t an invention or a science, as might 
several such persons acting in collaboration, since 
no two persons see things from exactly the same 
standpoint; and each individual's experience must 



40 The Development of Phonography 

necessarily differ iu some degree from that of 
every other. 

Let no stenographer think that his experience 
counts for nothing. Some happy thought may 
have flashed across his mind, which will be of 
value to his fellows, if only preserved and given 
to the world. Fellow-phonographers, give us the 
best you have to offer, trusting that the stream 
of time will sweep away the sand and leave the 
jewels. 

— The Pho7iographic Journal. 



^t!^ 



BY W. E. MCDERMUT. 

Once upon a midnight dreary, as I pondered, 
weak and weary, 

Over problems of the cosmos till my head was al- 
most sore, 

Suddenly I woke from dreaming, and my memory 
was teeming 

With events too real for seeming, visions of the 
yesteryore. 

Vivid almost as the present were these scenes of 
yesteryore, 

Scenes that in upon me bore. 

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in a bright 
September 

That I first became a member of the court report- 
ing corps. 

I had cut out my vacation, got down to practice 
and dictation, 

And I felt a fine elation at the great success in 
store 

When my feet should cross the threshold of the 
future's open door. 

I could hear the plaudits roar. 



42 A Reporter s Ravhi' 

I had gone through all the mazes of the word out- 
lines and phrases, 

So that I could write like blazes, and knew all the 
shorthand lore. 

And the prize? I knew I'd win it; Wood, Bottome 
et al, weren't in it, 

For three hundred words a minute I could make, 
and then some more; 

For my pen went like greased lightning and across 
the paper tore 

At three hundred words and more. 

Then I came to a decision to accept the first posi- 
tion 

I could get as court reporter anywhere the coun- 
try o'er ; 

Which to do I soon was able, and I was assigned 
a table 

And a seat where I'd lose nothing of the lawyers' 
strife and roar. 

Or the idioms of the witness, or the learned legal 
lore, 

Or the honors great in store. 

So, my pens and pencils trimming, for a while 
things went a-swimming, 

And my fingers went a-skimming till they seemed 
almost to soar. 

Then the speakers got much faster, struck a speed 
I could not master. 



A Reporter's Ravhi' 43 

But I thought, "I'll try to last her till the long 

court day is o'er," 
And I hoist a silent prayer that they might go a 

little slower, 

Just a tiny little slower. 

Hope had just about departed, when an expert 

witness started, 
A flip witness who was nothing but a verbal 

meteor. 
For his tongue and lips, ne'er stopping, went a- 

flopping and a-flopping, 
Like a dancer's clogs a-hopping o'er a smooth and 

level floor. 
And to tell what happened to me then I really do 

deplore, 

But 'tis true, nor less nor more. 

First ray brain began a whirling, then my out- 
lines went a-curling 

lyike the shaving from a wood-plane, falling down 
upon the floor. 

And ray pens they went a-dipping, and my fingers 
jumping, tripping, 

And the ink it went a-dripping, dripping gobs of 
jet black gore, 

Dripping from the pen to paper, and from there 
down to the floor. 

Then court adjourned^the session 
o'er. 



44 ^ Reporter'' s Ravhi' 

But my troubles were not ended, for that evening 
there attended, 

With his head and body bended, an attorney at 
my door ; 

And his manner showed a flurry, and his face be- 
tokened worry, 

And he said, "I'm in a hurry to have all this 
trouble o'er. 

I am very greatly needing the entire day's pro- 
ceeding 

By nine o'clock if not before." 

Up to midnight dark and dreary, and beyond, I 
pondered wear}' 

Over shapeless things called shorthand, till my 
hair I seized and tore ; 

And I spent the night in testing, in comparing 
and in twisting 

Meanings from those hieroglyphics that they never 
had before. 

Meanings that were never given to those short- 
hand forms before. 

And I sat and sweat and swore. 

* 'Shorthand, ' ' said I, ' 'thing of evil, art thou work 
of man or devil ? 

What infernal imp of torture sent thee to this 
mundane shore ? 

For he must have been demented who this short- 
hand Stuff invented, 



A Reporter's Ravin* 45 

So hereafter I'm contented with the good old 

script of yore. ' ' 
And I flung my book of shorthand to the ledge 

above the door. 

Just above my chamber door. 

And that notebook, never flitting, still is sitting, 
still is sitting 

On the dusty, musty lintel just above my cham- 
ber door ; 

And I don't at all dissemble when I say I always 
tremble 

To confess what they resemble— those cold notes 
above the door. 

Thus my prospects bright, elysian, sadly faded 
from my vision. 

Me for shorthand — nevermore. 

— The Stenographer^ 
Philadelphia, June, ipi2. 



^^ 



BY J. L. DRISCOL. 

"Fin DE siECLE," is a French phrase which, 
literally interpreted means the end of the century; 
or, up to date. But it has a deeper significance ; 
it presents the close of the century in sharp con- 
trast with the beginning of the century. To the 
thoughtful mind, too, it brings the expressive 
French phrase, which expresses two ideas, in 
striking contrast with the English phrase, which 
does not of itself make any assertion, express a 
thought or make complete sense. 

To the contemplative mind, a glance at the cen- 
tury drawing to a close, reveals changes more 
marvelous than any tale from fairyland. At the 
beginning of the century it required six weeks to 
cross the Atlantic ; at its close the journey is ac- 
complished in less than that many days. At the 
beginning of the century, it was by a lucky acci- 
dent that a message was conveyed from London 
to New York inside of four months ; today, with 
five years of life left, a merchant can issue his 
order from London in the afternoon and have it 
executed in San Francisco on the morning of the 



Fin de Steele Shorthand 47 

same day. When the century was ushered m, 
Tennessee was in a state of babyhood, and to pass 
from its boundaries required a journey fraught 
with great peril ; today the citizen of Nashville 
can sit in his office and converse with friends al- 
most beyond its boundary line. One hundred 
years ago, our forefathers with improvised imple- 
ments of the rudest pattern and rifle at hand to 
repel the attacks of lurking savages, wrung a 
plain, though abundant living from mother-earth, 
while our fore-mothers did the house-work, wove 
the cloth, and made the garments for the entire 
family. In the year 1895, no grandee of old fared 
so sumptuously as the average citizen of Tennes- 
see — no "layde faire," of "ye olden time" could 
dress as gaudily as our nimble- fingered typewrit- 
ers of Nashville. At the beginning of the century, 
these United States formed a weak confederation 
of sixteen States and one Territory, containing 
fewer inhabitants than the great State of New 
York, at the present day. They were bounded 
by the Atlantic in the east, and the Mississippi in 
the west ; the lakes of the north and the possess- 
ions of France and Spain to the south. Today, 
that weak, circumscribed confederation is the most 
powerful nation on the face of the globe, lashed 
by the turbid waters of the sturdy Atlantic in the 
east, and laved by the placid waters of the teem- 



48 Fin de Siecle Shorthand 

ing Pacific in the west ; circled by the hyper- 
borean regions of Alaska in the north, and fringed 
by the Everglades, where it is a perpetual ban- 
quet in the south. It may be said en passant, that 
there is enough of the century left to add Canada 
to our wide domain before the pendulum of time 
points the hand to 12 p. ra., January 31st, 1899. 
But, however gratifying the picture, we must 
cease to gaze and turn our attention to what more 
immediately concerns us. While it is pleasant to 
let fancy range o'er the thousands of helps and 
adornments that civilization has brought down to 
the end of the century, and to indulge in anticipa- 
tions of even greater national glory, yet the re- 
sults, so vividly brought to mind by Fi7i de siecle, 
were not produced by day-dreaming; hence, we 
will turn our attention to that which more imme- 
diately affects us individually--that is 

SHORTHAND. 

Dropping reverie and retrospe(5t, let us serious- 
ly propound a few questions and honestly answer 
them. The first question which suggests itself 
is : Has shorthand, during the century drawing 
to a close kept pace with the march of progress 
in other directions? I answer, yes: although 
there have been systems of shorthand as shown 
by authentic history, from the time of Cicero down 
to the present day, yet at the beginning of the 



fin de Steele Shorthand 49 



century, as applied to the English language, it 
was almost unknown. It was without system, 
without textbooks, without literature, and with- 
out a recognized place in professional life. At the 
close of the century we find it developed into a 
system rigidly scientific in principle, unerring in 
expression, brief and facile in manipulation, and 
indefinitely expansible and improvable in charac- 
ter. Its literature embraces thousands of volumes, 
on every conceivable subjecfl; its votaries are num- 
bered by thousands and its position as an honor- 
able and lucrative profession is permanently es- 
tablished. 

At this point an occult power whispers in my 
ear, "Does shorthand, as a profession, occupy the 
plane to which its usefulness and its learning en- 
title it?" That same mysterious medium whis- 
pers, from a thousand quarters, "No," withabig 
N. An inward monitor from within, however, 
prompts me to reply : 

"The number who attain eminence, in any pro- 
fession , is very small compared with the host that 
stop short at mediocrity. Shorthand is no excep- 
tion to the rule." It must be remembered also, 
that many — very many stenographers, during the 
last quarter of a century, have risen to the very 
highest positions in social and business life. The 
seven ofl&cial reporters in the House of Represent- 



5© Fin de Steele Shorthand 

atives, and the Murphy brothers, in the Senate, 
occupy positions more honorable (I say more 
honorable, advisedly), and I believe as lucrative 
as the members of Congress, the Senators or even 
the Vice-President. From the same mysterious 
power comes this rejoinder: ' 'Admitting that those 
you mention, and a few others have risen to em- 
inence, is it not true that the great mass of pho- 
nographers fail to receive the recognition or the 
remuneration to which their attainments entitle 
them?" As promptly as the question was put, 
the aiswer comes : "If it is true, it is a part of 
wisdom to seek the causes, and to devise reme- 
dies; for there is no effe(5l without a cause." 

But this question is persistently pressed by pho- 
nographers, "Why are we underpaid, and our 
services unappreciated ?" The question is short; 
the answer coming from employers, is equally la- 
conic : "If there are many phonographers who 
are underpaid and unappreciated, there is a pro- 
portionate number of incompetents." 

Now the question is naturally prompted: "If 
the system of shorthand is as perfect: as stated, 
why are there so many incompetent phonograph- 
ers?" That question is simple, the answer must 
be long and complex. While the brain and brawn 
of American freemen were busily engaged in tun- 
neling mountains, spanning continents, bridging 



Fin de Siede Shoriha?id 51 

seas, weighing stars, chaining lightning, bottling 
sounds, and evolving systems of shorthand, the 
charlatan in phonography, as well as in the other 
walks of life, was getting in his work. Worthless 
systems were foisted upon an over-credulous com- 
munity. Thousands having no other source of 
information than the advertisements of these 
quacks were made to believe that shorthand could 
be acquired in a few weeks. Of course to a rea- 
soning mind anything so easily acquired can be 
but little value; or if it has value every one would 
possess it. Unfortunately, the average mind is 
not a reasoning one. The consequence is that 
students approach the study without a proper ap- 
preciation of its importance and value either as an 
accomplishment or as a profession. Law and 
medical students often propose to take a six or 
eight weeks course in order that they may be able 
to take down the lectures of their professors, and 
thus lighten their labors in acquiring a knowledge 
of their chosen profession. They would look 
with pitying contempt upon the man who would 
venture the assertion that phonography is never 
learned any more than law, medicine or music. 
Yet such is the fa(5t. If they would but consider 
that anything so easily learned and so eagerly 
sought would be in the possession of every one, 
if these specious promises were true. But it would 



52 Pin de Steele Shorthand 

seem that Barnum knew whereof he spoke when 
he said that the "American people love to te 
humbugged. ' ' 

This brings us face to face with another ques- 
tion which challenges thoughtful consideration, 
viz : "What can be done to improve the quality 
of shorthand writers and correspondingly benefit 
the profession at large?" That question, like the 
preceding, cannot be answered as readily as it is 
asked. Teachers can do much, but teachers in 
the true sense of the word are not numerous. 
How? First, by adopting proper methods of 
teaching but a discussion of this subjecfl would 
transcend the limits of a magazine article. And, 
second, by being truthful. How truthful? "When 
i:sked, as he is sure to be, "What are the requi- 
site qualifications for a reporter or an amanuensis, 
and how long will it take to finish ? let him answer 
truthfully: "As to the time, I can give you no 
definite information, because I know nothing a- 
bout your aptitude or perseverance. With refer- 
ence to the qualifications, you must attain a speed 
of one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five 
words per minute to creditably fill an amanuensis' 
position. You must reach a speed of one hun- 
dred and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five 
words per minute, in original matter, before you 
can report. But that is not all. You must, in 



Fin de Steele Shoriha?id 53 

addition, be able to divide your unpunctuated 
notes into phrases, clauses, sentences and para- 
graphs. You must have a knowledge of the con- 
struction of sentences and the words, phrases and 
clauses which enter into their composition, so as 
to recast whole sentences, if necessary. If you 
do not come to the study of shorthand with this 
knowledge, then you must study these necessary 
branches in connection with shorthand. This you 
can do by confining your practice for speed (after 
you have acquired ability to write) to the rules of 
syntax, punctuation, capitalization and rhetoric." 

The above questions are pressed upon the pho- 
nographers at large by the sphinx of fate, and it 
behooves them to furnish a satisfactory solution. 

In conclusion, the true phongrapher should 
never make phonography a means to an end. 
Shorthand should be his chief aim in life. There 
is a world of wisdom in the words of the poet : 
"Honor and fame from no condition rise; 
Adl well your part, there all the honor lies." 

— 7 he Southern Stenographic Magazine. 



^^ 



^Ijp 3ntnvt of ^t^nograpliy. 

BY B B B. 

Many will no doubt have heard it said that 
shorthand will be the writing of the dim and dis- 
tant future. How many stenographers believe 
this? Not many. 

Granted that this delightful vision is not a very 
practical one, we will content ourselves to look at 
shorthand writing in a more prosaic way. It is 
true that shorthand is taught in the schools, but 
the teachers of it, generally do not take sufficient 
interest in the art to make it either a profitable or 
pleasant study for their pupils. They teach it 
because they are paid to, not because they are 
interested in it, or believe in it. It is quite safe 
to say that the average pupil knows no more a- 
bout the literature of shorthand, than the child 
learning the alphabet does about the English lan- 
guage. 

There must be a reason for all this, and there 
is a reason. People have no faith in shortharid, 
many even of the followers of the profession it- 
self, hold their knowledge in light esteem, or use 
it only as a means to an end. With such a state 



The Fidure of Steyiography 55 

of affairs, is it any wonder that shorthand occu- 
pies such a low place in the estimation of the 
public ? 

There does not appear to exist among stenog- 
raphers, the desire for as high a standard in Eng- 
lish alone as is required by the other professions, 
and it is an unfortunate fa(5l that most of us live 
up to only what is expected of us. The low re- 
pute the art has in the mind of the general public 
can be easily accounted for, by the lack of edu- 
cation of its members. There can be no real 
remedy suggested for this condition, unless the 
standard is raised, and as much expected from 
and given by stenographers, as is required and 
received from other prof essional men and women. 

There is a seed that could be sown, and one 
that would produce a tree in which all the birds 
of the stenographic air would be able to lodge in 
perfecft security and with a serenity that is borne 
by the members of other and older professions. 
It is the seed that may be sown by thorough and 
judicious teaching. It is the method adopted by 
those who impart the knowledge that has pro- 
duced such bad results, and has given abroad the 
impression that stenography is but a make-shift 
of a profession, and indeed not worthy to be called 
one at all. 

A different system of teaching would have a 



56 The FiiUive of Stenography 



radical effedl. Stenographers would be taught to 
read and write stenography, the saire as a child 
is taught to read and write English. As things 
exist there is so much make -shift work done in 
teaching shorthand, and so little attention paid to 
the principles contained in the subjecft, that the 
pupil readily grasps the idea that the work he is 
engaged in is of a third rate character. Few in- 
deed are the teachers who lift their pupils beyond 
the mere labor of the study. They teach to en- 
able their pupils to become breadwinners, but not 
to help them to become scholarly. There seems 
to dwell no idea in the minds of these educators 
that stenography has a future, and their pupils 
should be prepared to live in it, and not die out 
like weakly plants in a soil too rich for their de- 
velopment. There must be a revolution among 
teachers, an awakening up to the responsibilities 
that the present lays upon them for the welfare 
of the future, and unless the slumbering instruct- 
ors hear the call, shorthand will never be any- 
thing but a third-rate and inferior calling. 

The time seems to be ripe for the unification of 
all those who believe in the dream of the optimist 
for the adoption of a standard method of stenog- 
raphy. As long as there exists such a variety of 
systems, each having unique virtues, and each 
capable of producing competent and efficient 



The Future of Stenography 57 

writers, there can never be a future for the art. 
We must either advance or retreat, and unless the 
call for unity be given and accepted, we are sure 
to take the backward step, and lose our footing 
on the future. There should be a more earnest 
endeavor made by those interested in this work, 
a larger heartedness developed, a kindlier en- 
couragement given, and a grand effort made to 
unite, that the future may hold something for 
stenographers, and that stenography may at least 
be said to be worthy to be called a profession. 

— Stenograph ic Bulleii n . 



^^ 



A W^ttothxn Angel. 

BY S. H, GRAY. 

I've been a courtin lately down at the county seat, 
An' I've heard some legal talkin' that is mighty 

hard to beat. 
I've listened to the argyments, and to the cons 

and pros, 
Which is reckoned high-falutin fer a lawyer, I 

suppose ; 
My feelings sorter went agin the high-toned 

rhetoric, 
"Enough's enough," I says, says I, "but too 

much make y' sick." 
You can talk your legal learnin', you can read it 

from your books, 
But I'd ruther watch that feller as he writes pot- 
hooks. 

That feller sat ascribblin' in a little yaller book, 
An' he'd scribble down a sentence in a curly -kew 

er crook, 
He'd write it down so easy that he seemed to ask 

fer more, 
An' in signs about as legible as hinges on a door — 
That is, ter me. Of course he knew jes' every 



A Rccordhi' Angel 59 

word he writ, 
Fer when he came to read it, why he didn't skip 

a bit. 
The lawyers twisted sentences at a pretty giddy 

rate; 
But he straightened out the grammar 'till they 

read first-rate. 

Our minister, last Sunday — 'mong other things 

he said — 
'lyOwed a recordin' angel was awritin' overhead, 
An' wrote down in a book he kept jes' everything 

you did, 
An' not a thing omitted, fer nothin' could be hid. 
It seemed a kinder strange to me how he could 

get it down, 
Considerin' all the doin's that is goin' on around. 
I see it now as plain as day. It's done by hook 

and crook. 
Like the feller was ascribblin' in the little yaller 

book. 

Oil Czly, Pa., April, iSpo. 



a^I|? Tlalitf of a ^linrttiattii Sltbrarij. 

BY GEORGE MAYNAED. 

The student of shorthand will find it in every- 
way to his interest to have a good collection of 
books relative to the art. Not only the best mag- 
azines of the day which may be devoted to his 
own particular sj'stem of shorthand, but those of 
other systems — and indeed everything bearing 
upon the subjecft, without regard to its age. 

Every man who engages in any kind of busi- 
ness or profession, ought to make a collection of 
books on the subjecft in which he is interested. 
And this, not merely as a matter of curiosity, but 
for study, and as a help to him in his work. 

One should be posted not only in the manual 
practice of his art, but in its history and theory 
as well. This is especially true of shorthand. 
The current magazines all contain good ideas and 
valuable suggestions, which the student will find 
helpful to him if he reads them ; while the short- 
hand publications of past days will prove valuable 
in many ways. 

The larger the collection one has the more valu- 
able it becomes. A complete collection of all the 



7 he Value of a Shorthand Library 6i 

important works ever published on the subjecfl 
would doubtless make a very large library, and 
would probably not be possible to obtain at any 
price, but if such a thing could be done, I have 
no doubt that, from a pecuniary point of view, it 
would be a good speculation. But it is for pur- 
poses of study that I would more particularly 
recommend the gathering together and preserva- 
tion of all the books on the subjecfl that one can 
conveniently obtain. 

By contrasting the old systems with the new, 
one learns to admire the beauty and simplicity of 
the latter, and to more keenly appreciate the ad- 
vantages now offered to the student compared 
with what the shorthand world had to give fifty 
or a hundred years ago. 

The writer has in his possession an ancient vol- 
ume, which he ranks among his chief est treas- 
ures. It is a copy of Weston's shorthand, printed 
in England in 1725, and has a special value from 
the fadl that it was once the property of Captain 
Nathan Hale, the "Martyr Spy" of the American 
Revolution, and bears on its flyleaf his autograph, 
with the date of 1774, two years previous to his 
capture and execution by the British at New 
York. It had previously been in possession of 
several prominent ministers of the olden day, in 
Connecticut, as attested by their names and dates 



62 7 he Value of a Shorthand Library 

of purchase, with the prices paid for it, which 
show that it was sold for the equivalent of seven 
dollars on several occasions. 

This book of over 200 pages was almost entire- 
ly printed from engraved plates, in the most beau- 
tiful manner, and was, for its day and generation, 
a magnificent work. But when one comes to ex- 
amine its marvelous intricacies and fearful lists of 
arbitrary characters to be memorized, he cannot 
but feel grateful that his lot as a shorthand student 
is cast in happier days. And yet this ancient 
volume was undoubtedly mastered by generations 
of shorthand writers, as its well worn pages elo- 
quently testify. 

It is wonderful to what length of puzzling hiero- 
glyphics some systems of shorthand have gone, 
and undoubtedly they have all had their devotees, 
who believed they were the best that could be in- 
vented. But when it comes to that, that a system 
of shorthand is so elaborate that it can be proved 
to be more difficult to write than longhand, as, I 
believe, has been shown in at least one case in 
our own time, I think it is time to call a halt ! 

There is certainly no need to go outside the 
Pitmanic systems of shorthand for beauty, sim- 
plicity, and every desirable quality needed in an 
art which has for its objedl the reduction of writ- 
ing to its briefest and most scientific form. That 



The Value of a Shorthand Library 63 

there will be improvements in these systems, as 
time rolls on, goes without saying; but the grand 
invention of Isaac Pitman furnished a sure basis 
for the shorthand of the future. 

Although the Pitmanic systems of shorthand 
are undoubtedly superior to any others, yet I hold 
that it is well for students, or more particularly 
for teachers, to have some intelligent idea of the 
various other systems of shorthand, which are 
now, or have been, in use in the world. Not by 
any means to master them — for this would be very 
largely a useless labor, and one for which no human 
life would furnish the opportunity. 

But a good collection of shorthand books of the 
various systems, which can be kept and perused 
in one's leisure hours will well repay the time 
spent upon it, in the amount of valuable informa- 
tion and suggestions which it will furnish. The 
author of the crudest system may have had some 
happy thought which will be helpful to us, and at 
the very worst, his stenographic vagaries may 
serve as a "terrible example" of the things which 
we should avoid. 

Therefore I again advise every shorthand writer 
to enrich his library whenever he has the oppor- 
tunity, with works pertaining to the profession, 
whether ancient or modern. In one way or an- 
other, they will be valuable to him, and, in the 



64 The Value of a Shorthand Library 

end, he will never regret their acquirement. 

— The Phonographic Journal, 
October, 1894. 



3ts 3nfiufttrrfi. 



Werb all the influences, which from age to age, 
shorthand has exercised over the affairs of the 
world, published, a volume of rare historic value 
would be added to our libraries. The light it has 
reflected upon past ages, and with which our age 
is so radient, is still hidden from the appreciation 
and admiration of the world, and known only to 
the initiated. As a manifestation of the all-per- 
vading affections of stenographers for the profes- 
sion, it is worthy of enduring record in our ar- 
chives. It is one of those professions that will 
reach forward into our history, and seize upon 
those undying elements which shall transmit it to 
posterity. 

— Sanders* Shorthand Gazette. 



^#!. 



5II|^ Jm^inrtattrr of iEcaJitttg i'ljortljattii 
SnurttalB. 



BY FRANK HARRISON. 



This is the literature period of the shorthand 
profession. Within the past ten years, progres- 
sive members of our craft have come to appreciate 
the importance of shorthand pubHcations, in rela- 
tion to the general welfare of all concerned. Had 
there been published, years ago, the number of 
bright instructive journals which are now being 
issued in the interests of shorthanders, we would 
now have been far in advance of our present posi- 
tion in this regard. Some narrow-minded old 
fogies say we have too many shorthand journals. 
There cannot be too many. I am always pleased 
to hear of the conception of any new publication, 
which in any way will benefit the shorthand fra- 
ternity. Furthermore, Ibeheveit is the bounden 
duty of all true stenographers to liberally support 
journals published in their interests. Certainly 
none of them cost very much, and every dollar 
spent in shorthand literature of this kind will be 
returned ten-fold. I doubt if any money value 
can be placed on the benefits to be derived by re- 
ligiously reading the shorthand magazines. If a 



Importance of Reading Shorthand Jouriials 66 

mau or woman, in the grand shorthand aggrega- 
tion, desires to progress and keep abreast of the 
times; keep fully in touch with all things pertain- 
ing to shorthand and typewriting; then he or she 
cannot subscribe for too many shorthand maga- 
zines. During many years experience as a report- 
er, I have never thought I knew too much not to 
read about my profession, and today I make it a 
rule to carefully read every publication that has 
in any way a bearing on my profession, and I ad- 
vise all persons in any way identified with short- 
hand or typewriting to do the same thing. Read 
them all. By so doing you keep out of a rut and 
get the ideas of many persons. I do not know of 
any shorthand magazine now published, but from 
which benefit can be derived by carefully reading 
the same, and I repeat, with all due respec5t to 
to some of the older members, who think they 
have outgrown the shorthand magazine, that every 
one who has the least interest in this great and 
growing profession should read much of what is 
said and being written about it, and which is pub- 
lished from month to month, in the shorthand 
publications of this country. 

— The Universal Writer. 



^am ^ot (iia in It 



Carlyle's famous description of his fellow- 
creatures as "mostly fools," has been sometimes 
attributed to dyspepsia, but there is probably no- 
body who has not at certain moments in his life 
felt that the proposition is profoundly true. The 
phraseology is curt and unsympathetic : there is 
a repellent bluntness about it which seems to stamp 
it as the outcome of an atrabilious mood. Yet 
when one surveys impartially the behaviour of 
men and women in the past and the behaviour of 
large numbers of our fellows in the present, it is 
impossible not to confess that there is some war- 
rant for the severe and uncomplimentary verdidl 
of the Chelsea philosopher. It is unfortunately 
only too true that history is full of examples of 
human folly. As we look back upon the doings 
of our ancestors in those "good old times" that 
were once the objedl of so much eulogy, we see 
illustration after illustration of "how not to do it." 
At some periods the persistent wrong-headedness 
of those in authority seems almost miraculous. 
Having a clear end in view, they would endeavor 



68 How Not To Do It 

to attain it, by methods that were certain to fail, 
methods which we can see had no possible chance 
of success. If an opinion or set of opinions were 
spreading among the people which those in au- 
thority deemed to be erroneous, dangerous and 
subversive, was there any serious or prolonged 
attempt to confute the wrong opinion, or to under- 
mine it by setting forth in a more conclusive way 
the right opinion ? No : the chief endeavor was 
to suppress the opinion, and to force it out of ex- 
istence by persecution and repression. Many times 
before had the experiment been tried : always 
had it failed. Yet it was persisted in century after 
century, generation after generation, with the in- 
evitable result of failure. It is not needful that 
we should multiply instances of the folly of man 
in the past. Anybody who will look round him 
at the present day will see abundant illustrations 
of "how not to do it." Some individuals indeed 
seem to have a positive aptitude for attempting to 
do things in the wrong way. A popular phrase 
describes them as people who always grasp the 
muddy end of the stick. What it is that makes 
them differ from other mortals we must leave to 
philosophers to discuss : we are only concerned 
with the facts. 

Now these awkward people are to be found a- 
mong the learners and the writers of shorthand. 



How Not To Do It 69 

Sometimes their antics are amusing ; at other 
times they do things which make the wise man 
shudder, and send a thrill of horror through the 
minds of the more susceptible observers. Mr. 
Reed in his amusing lecture on "Phonography as 
a Pastime," gave some illustrations of a type of 
wrong-headedness with which every teacher of 
long experience has occasionally come into con- 
tacft. The pupil who will not learn how to unite 
two alphabetic characters, and upon whom ex- 
planation after explanation and illustration after 
illustration of the rules for using the / and r 
hooks, and the n andy^hooks seem utterly in vain, 
and who, after repeated lessons, and daily cor- 
rections of errors, persists in perpetuating blun- 
ders which ought never to have been made, is a 
reality that tries the patience and temper of the 
most painstaking instructor. Ofttimes this kind 
of pupil is gifted with a large amount of stolid but 
useless perseverance. Once he gets into a wrong 
groove it is a Sisyphean task to extricate him from 
it. In nine cases out of ten the teacher comes to 
look upon his pupil as incurable, and he gives up 
in despair the attempt to put him right. To those 
who have mastered phonography with ease, the 
very existence of people who cannot master it at 
all, seems extraordinary. But if we refledl that 
the same phenomenon is noticeable as regards 



70 How Not To Do It 

other studies, we shall cease to be astonished at 
it as regards phonography. There are boys who 
appear to be positively incapable, no matter how 
prolonged their studies may be, to overcome the 
mysteries of arithmetic, beyond its mere element- 
ary stages. Many people go through life ' 'dunces 
at figures. ' ' Others show an equal incapacity to 
master languages. Some are unable ever to learn 
drawing. What wonder then that there should 
be people whose mental constitutions are so oddly 
framed that they cannot learn phonography ? 

But it is not only among those who fail to ac- 
quire shorthand knowledge that the principle of 
"how not to doit" is exemplified. Many a youth 
who starts with the laudable ambition to become 
a rapid and accurate writer of phonography, and 
who has no mental or manual incapacity which 
would prevent him from succeeding in his objedl, 
nevertheless does not succeed. He fails just be- 
cause he employs wrong methods. Disregarding 
the advice given him so abundantly in the text- 
books of the system, he will endeavor to write 
fast before he has learned to write correctly ; he 
will strain every nerve to take down a rapid speak- 
er before he has learned to take down a slow 
speaker well ; he will neglecl to read his notes ; 
he will disregard position in writing : and so he 
cultivates a slovenly style ; his notes are incom- 



How Not To Do It 71 

plete ; the characters, being badly formed, are 
often illegible, and though he seems to have "put 
on speed" very rapidly for a time, he finds that 
all his endeavors to attain the high rates of speed 
which are absolutely necessary in the front ranks 
of the shorthand profession, are fruitless. His 
case is emphatically an illustration of ' 'how not 
to do it. " The fable of the hare and the tortoise 
is scarcely applicable to this case ; for the tortoise 
never by any possibility acquires the speed of the 
hare. Any hare, in real life, who allowed a tor- 
toise to beat him in a fair race would very proper- 
ly be an obje(5t of derision among his four-footed 
relatives and friends. But the learner who aspires 
to a place among the most skilful writers of pho- 
nography must manage to combine the patient 
plodding habits of the tortoise with the capacity 
of the hare for swiftness and to combine them so 
well that the one shall be made conducive to the 
other. The golden rule is to learn the system 
thoroughly first, and then to practice it diligently 
and intelligently. Practice regularly. Always 
write well — that is, with clearly formed outhnes: 
increase your speed slowly and gradually ; let 
practice in reading and writing be concurrent. 
Many a catastrophe would be avoided if every- 
body would conscientiously adhere to these simple 
principles. 



72 How Not To Do It 

Many a man who has not succeeded to the ex- 
tent that he desired, looks around him for some- 
thing or somebody to blame, instead of looking at 
home. History is full of examples of this curious 
habit. In the Isle of Man there is an old roofless 
church, about which strange legends survive. It 
is said that when the church was in course of 
erection, all attempts to supply it with a roof were 
baffled by certain mischievous elfs called ' 'bug- 
ganes, ' ' who play an important part in the legend- 
ary history of Manxland. According to the story 
whenever the builders completed the roof of that 
church, the bugganes brought it down with a 
crash. The obvious truth behind this ingenious 
narrative is that the builders were incompetent. 
They could manage the construction of the walls 
without much difficulty ; but they did not know 
how to erect a roof that would endure. The pop- 
ular superstition was very convenient for them, 
but is not now available for those who have failed 
through neglecting right methods and who are 
yet anxious that the blame shall fall in some other 
quarter. Nevertheless they do succeed in find- 
ing a scapegoat. When their failure is with short- 
hand, it is invariably the system that they blam^e. 
This is truly an illustration of "how not to doit." 
Phonographers, able and experienced, exist in 
abundance. "How to do it" has been exempli- 



How Not To Do It 73 

fied in the career of many a living man. If the 
learner will only pursue his studies intelligently, 
adopting those methods and that order in his 
study which long experience has found to be the 
best, he will, unless he be one of the "dunces" 
who though they are rare, do actually exist, find 
that his careful toil will be rewarded with success, 
and that though there will always be people whose 
inextinguishable perversity will make of them 
living examples of "how not to do it," he at least 
will not be numbered in their ranks. 

— The Phonetic Journal, 
June 7, 1S89. 



i (Siantt ISi^pavtn's (Halaatniplif. 

BY HARRY EASTMAN. 

Onck there was a scribe Pitmanic 
From whose won'drous brain gigantic 
Crooked marks and fly legs frantic 

O'er his notebook sported gay ; 
'Mid the heat of legal wrangle 
He was never known to tangle 
Or fail to trace the proper angle 

In a most mysterious way, 
'Till a family aristocratic 
Sought by oral proof emphatic 
To settle a disputed question in respecl 

to certain land ; 
In the course of the proceedings 
Plaintiff in support of pleadings 
To establish his contention, put a lady 

on the stand. 
She discoursed on education, 
Dress reform — emancipation, 
To the judge's protestation 

She paid not the slightest heed ; 
On subjects vital to the nation, 
Without pause or hesitation, 



A Court Reporter's Catastrophe 75 

With dramatic gesticulation 

She held forth with matchless ?peed. 
Not by a remote suggestion 
Did she touch the case in question, 
And the scribe with consternation saw 

the sunset of his fame ; 
And he tore his hair and snorted, 
Vowing he would not be thwarted 
By a woman— forced to suffer all the 

pangs of untold shame. 
But the witness never ceasing, 
Rapidly her tongue releasing, 
All the time her speed increasing, 

Thought not of the steno's grief ; 
But the tide of luck was turning 
As the hour for court's adjourning, 
For which he was vainly yearning, 

Came at last to his relief. 
Yet he thought with mingled horror. 
If perchance upon the morrow 
Should his Honor ask the reading of 

what the witness had to say ; 
Imagine, then, his exultation 
When the cross examination 
Defendant waived without hesitation, 

when the court convened next day. 
So now he seeks some "Poetic" raven, 
To ask if in the Christian's haven 



76 A Court Reporter'' s Catastrophe 

He will meet his fleet-tongued witness 
in the happy by and bye ; 
And if she passes through the portal 
Of the better land, immortal, 

He'll go on some grand excursion, 
if she's called to testify. 

— The Soiithemi Stenographic Magazine. 

1^ 



The feasibility of conducting any business cor- 
respondence whatever in shorthand, has been 
sometimes questioned on the supposed ground of 
the undistinguishable similarity of the characters 
written by phonographers. There is, it is pointed 
out, a distinctiveness about the ordinary hand- 
writing of every individual, which makes it easy 
to identify it. It takes a clever man to make a 
successful forger, because there is this unmistak- 
able individuality about the customary handwrit- 
ing. As to the suggestion that only unimportant 
letters should be sent off in shorthand, the man of 
business replies that nobody can tell, at the time 
of writing, whether any given letter is important 
or not. It may, at that moment, appear to be 
trivial, but in the light of subsequent events, it 
may acquire a degree of importance which will 
make serious results depend upon the question 
where, when, and by whom, it was actually writ- 
ten. ' ' Except in a very few instances, " it is said, 
"we cannot classif}^ letters as important or unim- 
portant until long after they are written. We can 



78 Individuality in Shorthand 

prove the handwriting of any person who has 
been in our employ, if necessity arises. But how 
are we to prove the shorthand ? How is it pos- 
sible to identify a man's shorthand, when you 
make all the characters alike?" If this were not, 
in the minds of some men of business, a real dif- 
ficulty, we should not refer to it. When we have 
been questioned by them on the subje(5l, we have 
always replied, to their great surprise, that there 
is no difficulty at all about the matter ; that pho- 
nography, although to those who do not write it, 
it may seem to be merely a kind of rapid drawing, 
is, in reality, a handwriting, and is affected by the 
same influences that tend to make the ordinary 
handwriting of different people differ. That this 
is under-stating rather than overstating the fa<5l, 
every experience 1 phonographer knows well. 

No two people are exactly alike, and no two 
people write exactly in the same manner, whether 
it be in longhand or in shorthand. Certain broad 
features we can recognize at a glance. We never 
mistake the handwriting of a German, educated 
iu' his own country, for that of an Englishman, 
educated here. Nor do we mistake the handwrit- 
ing of a Frenchman for that of a German. Na- 
tional peculiarities, dependent on various causes, 
create a distinction which we notice at once. But 
we should never think of saying that all Germans 



Individuality in Shorthand 79 

write alike, or that all Frenchmen write alike. 
In the handwriting of different members of the 
same family, there may be found striking resem- 
blances. Just as a peculianty in the shaping of 
the nose, or the color of the eyes, or even some 
odd involuntary habit, will reappear, generation 
after generation, in one family, so will their pecul- 
iarities of handwriting continue. We have not 
had opportunities of comparing the shorthand writ- 
ing written by the members of one family for sev- 
eral generations ; it would probably be difficult at 
the present time to get enough examples to make 
any test yield satisfactory results. But we do not 
doubt that it will be found, when materials exist 
in suffi:ient quantity for trustworthy experiments 
to take place, that peculiarities of shorthand writ- 
ing are transmitted from father to son, and from 
son to grandson, and the collateral relatives ex- 
hibit the same peculiarities in a minor degree. 

To what extent this is true, it will be for the 
future to decide. But of one facft we are certain, 
namely, that the characteristics of shorthand writ- 
ing vary with each individual, so that it is easy 
for anybody who is in the habit of receiving much 
correspondence in shorthand, to tell at a glance 
the handwriting of any one of his frequent cor- 
respondents. Indeed we have heard it urged 
seriously, that there is more distinctiveness about 



8o Individ^iality in Shorthand 

a. man's shorthand than about his longliand, and 
we are by no means certain that this view is not 
strictly corre(5t. A careful analysis of the char- 
acteristics of the phonography written by any 
dozen phonographers, would reveal an astonish- 
ing amount of variety, even assuming that they 
all write precisely the same outlines for the sanie 
words, and have all cultivated precisely the same 
habits with regard to phraseography, vowel in- 
dication, the use of position, and the like. We 
should find differences in the degrees of "shad- 
ing;" slight differences in the formation of the 
curved characters — some writers forming them as 
segments of a circle, and others as segments of an 
oval, with every intermediate stage— differences 
in the inclination of the characters tovrards or a- 
way from the line of writing ; differences in the 
care with which hooks, circles, and loops are 
formed ; and differences in the size of these rela- 
tively to the sizes of the ordinary alphabetic char- 
acters ; differences in the relative distances of the 
outlines from each other; and a multitude of other 
variations, all slight in themselves, but making up 
in their totality, an amount of difference that 
causes each man's shorthand to be, in appearance, 
unlike that of all ether men. Into the causes of 
all these minute variations, we do not here pro- 
pose to enter. They are numerous. Many of 



Individuality in Shorthand 8 1 

them may be conveniently summed up by describ- 
ing them as due to the individuality of the writer. 
Those ingenious people vi-ho profess to be able to 
read character from handwriting, will probably, 
one of these days, turn their attention to short- 
hand as a revealer of character. If a man's dis- 
position and habits can be discovered from his 
longhand, there cannot be the least doubt that 
they can be equally well discovered from his 
shorthand. The fa (51 is, that there is no kind of 
work that a man performs unaided, which does 
not bear in it unmistakeable traces of the person- 
ality of the worker. That element can never dis- 
appear; and it is therefore an altogether errone- 
ous belief that shorthand is less distinctive, or is 
less easily recognized as the work of any particu- 
lar individual, than longhand. If the difficulty 
felt on that score be the only objection to the use 
of shorthand as a means of communication between 
men of business, there can be no reason why the 
innovation should not take place at once. A few 
comparisons of the phonography written by a few 
different writers, will soon satisfy the most scep- 
tical that there is no real ground whatever for the 
opinion that all phonographers write alike. We 
have said that it takes a clever man to make a suc- 
cessful forger; we are convinced that it would re- 
quire a man far cleverer than the ordinary forger, 



82 hidivi duality in Shoriha7id 

to imitate the shorthand writing of another man, 
with such skill as to defy detection. 

— The Phonetic Journal. 

December, 1888. 



BY GEORGE MAYNARD. 

There is no doubt that success in newspaper 
reporting depends to some extent upon the pecul- 
iar mental and physical adaptability to that line 
of business. Some people have a natural talent 
for it, as others have for mechanics, or some of 
the professions. And yet to say that this is the 
main factor of success in that or any other line of 
business, is not, I think, correcft. An inclination 
for hard work, and a good store of general infor- 
mation, are of even more importance. The sub- 
jects with which the reporter has to deal are so 
various in their nature, that he must needs be, to 
some extent, a walking encyclopedia, if he would 
make his reports what they should be. This is a 
part of his fighting equipment for the battle of 
life. 

There is also another weapon for the same con- 
test, for which it is my purpose here to say a 
word, and that is, a good knowledge of short- 
hand. 

It is often said that a good longhand reporter, 
who does not understand shorthand, can make a 



Newspaper Reporting 



much better report of a speech, than a shorthand 
writer who has not had experience as a reporter. 
This is undoubtedly true, but it in no way mih- 
tates against the value of shorthand to the report- 
er. The experienced reporter would be able to 
make a vastly better report, if he were also an 
experienced shorthand writer, 

I lay this principle down as an absolute facft, 
that cannot be denied. And not until some first- 
class shorthand reporter tells me that he is sorry 
he ever learned shorthand, shall I ever believe to 
the contrary. 

Your shorthand makes an additional and im- 
proved tool with which to do your work. 

I venture to say, that, without the use of short- 
hand, no man can make an approximately ver- 
batim report of a speech of an hour's length, even 
if delivered at a moderate rate of speed. He may 
make a good report, but not a verbatim one. 

I would not by any means be understood as 
using the latter word in its absolute sense. Very 
few speeches would look well in print with all the 
grammatical imperfections that will creep into 
verbal delivery, even with otherwise pretty good 
scholars. To make them read well, the reporter 
must have enough common sense and knowledge 
of grammar to polish their rough angles a little, 
and possibly bridge an occasional hiatus, and 



Newspaper Reporiuig 85 

eliminate a repetition or other redundancy of 
speech. 

All this is well ; but it takes the swift-winged 
pen of the phonographer to catch the fleeting 
words of eloquence, as they fall from the lips of a 
PhilHps, a Gough, or a Beecher, ajid consign them 
to a permanent place in the store-house of human 
literature. 

Therefore I say to the reporter : Don't despise 
shorthand, but cultivate its acquaintance, and 
make it your friend instead of your enemy. 

It is often said that a partial knowledge of short- 
hand is worse than none at all — all this may be 
true ; but, pray, why have a partial knowledge? 
Why not master the situation and not only make 
shorthand your friend, but your obedient humble 
servant, as well? 

I am not arguing that all men can make good 
shorthand writers, but I believe that a great ma- 
jority of reporters might learn it to their great 
advantage ; and it seems to me that it would be 
worth their while to make the effort. 

But whether the reporter writes shorthand or 
not, his life is not always a pathway strewn with 
roses. If he is a reporter for a daily paper, it is 
a question of time that continually confronts him. 
He has to work on the rush to get his reports in- 
to shape in season. And only a reporter can 



86 Newspaper Reporting 

realize the difficulties he has to encounter in get- 
ting the material for them. 

The newspaper reporter must be ready for every 
emergency, and be able to work under all manner 
of conditions. He must make his reports where 
he can get a chance. If he finds a nice table all 
to himself, and nothing to disturb him, it is well. 
He may thank his lucky stars, and go ahead. 
But this is the exception, rather than the rule. 
It is more likely that his knee will be his table, if 
he has a chance to sit down. If not, he must 
hold his book in his hands, as best he can, or lean 
it on the friendly shoulder of some one in the 
crowd. 

If the meeting is late, and his copy is wanted 
at an early hour, he will have to hustle. That is 
what the newspaper reporter seems to be made 
for. And there is no other class of people in the 
community who can do it so well ; nor is there 
another class of people who have more need of 
good judgment. 

If his report is to be condensed, he must know 
what to use, and what to reje(5l. He must have 
ability to catch quickly the salient points, and put 
them in shape to make them readable. He must 
be familiar with the "boiling down" process, for 
any unnecessary verbiage is not to be tolerated in 
modern newspaper reports. 



Newspaper Reporting 87 

When the young reporter first enters upon his 
chosen profession, he usually has some sad but 
wholesome lessons to learn in this respecft. He is 
sent to make his first report of some meeting or 
lecture, or of some event which, in his eyes, looks 
quite important. He writes up his report in ex- 
tenso, using the best and most flowery language 
of which he is capable. Then he carries it in, 
and the next morning when he looks for it in the 
news columns, he finds but a mere skeleton of 
what he has written, so clipped and abbreviated 
that he hardly recognizes it. The ruthless pencil 
of his superior has been through most of it, and 
his twenty lines have been cut down to five; the 
flowery language, on which he especially prided 
himself, has been left out entirely, and his glow- 
ing adjectives have taken on an air of subdued 
resignation. 

After a few such experiences, he begins to 
find that what is wanted of him is to state the 
principal facts in the fewest words. Then he 
begins to make words tell — to express himself in 
language that will convey a great deal of meaning 
in small space. 

I venture to say that the trained reporters of 
our great newspapers have a better command of 
language than almost any other class of writers 
in the community. They not only know how to 



88 Newspaper Reporting 

put their thoughts into the very briefest forms of 
expression, but also to use, upon occasion, elo- 
quent and thrilling language, that will charm the 
ear, or stir the sense of the pathetic or the sub- 
lime. 

Undoubtedly much of the very best literary tal- 
ent of the country drifts into the field of journal- 
ism. That field has often furnished a stepping- 
stone to the highest rounds on the ladder of fame. 
It is a business that has a tendency to educate 
and broaden men's minds and bring out whatever 
there is in them. 

Of course, there is journalism and journalism, 
— much of which does not even deserve the name. 
But the great and influential papers of our time — 
those which, to a large degree mould public opin- 
ion, furnish a field to the young man entering up- 
on life, in which he is brought into contadl with 
the living world of today. It is a school of prac- 
tical training, which no college ever did, or ever 
can, give. 

— The Pho7wgraphic Journal, 
Augusf, 1894. 



Aji actual occur re7ice told in thyme 
BY FRED T. LEPORT. 

Hb comes upon the stand with a knowing air, 
Drops his silk hat on the bench, runs his fingers 

thro' his hair, 
Inclines his head a little to expose his cerebellum, 
And give the jury some idea of all that he might 

tell 'em. 
On dired: examination he wears a smile serene, 
And calls the Latin names of bones, not knowing 

what they mean; 
For he thinks he's placed upon the stand to show 

his erudition 
And do his level best to prove his patient's sad 

condition. 
But when the cross-examiner takes his inning at 

the bat 
And pins him down to facts alone, and the why 

of this and that; 
His jaunty air evaporates, he fain would make 

excuse. 
And wishes, now it is too late, he'd not been so 

profuse. 



go The Medical Expert on the Stand 



The comisel, as a feeler, asks, "Doctor, what's 

3'our college 
Where j'ou learned the surgeon's art ; where did 

3^ou get your knowledge 
Of fractures, dislocations, and other things hke 

that?" 
He sniles ; the question's easy, and he has his 

answer pat. 
With dignity, in measured tones he says, "In 

medicine 
I'm a regular physician, and such I've always 

been. 
Since the day I graduated, at the head of all ray 

class. 
And I know all things in medicine and surgery 

en masse. ''^ 
'Tis a case of dislocation of a bone he calls the 

"femur;" 
And he now relates the history, without a single 

tremor; 
Tells about the "ligamentum teres," the sur- 
rounding "cotyloid," 
How the bone slips from the capsule, and leaves 

an aching void. 
He had noticed "crepitation," and from that 

made up his mind 
That a "fractured acetabulum" would be the case 

defined. 



The Medical Expert on the Stand 91 

He reduced it by "extension," taught him at his 
Alma Mater, 

And brought it into place assisted by the "ob- 
turator. ' ' 

And having thus most glibly drawn upon his 
mental pabulum. 

Counsel asks him, "If you please, sir, locate the 
acetabulum." 

He loses all assurance, grows less confident in 
tone. 

Says he "thinks the acetabulum is some part of 
the bone." 

Pressed by counsel for the spot exadt at which it 
can be found. 

He lapses into a study, very brown and most pro- 
found; 

And at last revives again, and comes once more 
"on deck" 

He says "the acetabulum is of the bone, the 
neck." 

And having thus located it, from that he will not 

swerve, 
But repeats, ' 'It is just the point where the femur 

makes the curve," 
The counsel in a sneering tone says, "Sir, we're 

done with you, 
If you can't locate so large a bone within an inch 

or two. ' ' 

— The Western Stenographer. 



Ulg (Urtal ©rip. 

BY BATES TORREY. 



A FRIEND of mine, a successful reporter, drop- 
ped in one day at the business house where I was 
week after week ploughing out letters concerning 
wheat and flour, Chicago "booms" and Minne- 
apolis "outputs," until my work had become so 
"cut and dried" that, though conscious of a cer- 
tain mental stagnation, and idea of ever bettering 
my condition was exceedingly remote. 

However, my friend that day, instead of mak- 
ing me miserable by his usual remark — "How can 
you stand this eternal humdrum?" came with an 
invitation in behalf of his paper to assist in photo- 
graphing (in plumbago and phonetics) the big 
rally which was to be holden that evening in the 
interests of B. F. B's candidacy for the governor- 
ship of the old Bay State. 

I rather hung back, in distrust of my ability to 
follow the average orator; in fa(5l, felt kind of "all- 
overish" at the mere suggestion of my friend; but 
he gave me the best possible encouragement, and 
finally overcame my objections. 

At the appointed hour we hastened to Faneuil 



My Trial Trip 93 

Hall. We entered at the rear by a private door 
which opened to a flight of stairs that finished 
its spiral way right back of the speakers' plat- 
form. 

Already a few enthusiastic politicians were up- 
on the stage. With much timidity I shrank into 
my coat and slunk by them to the reporters' table 
just below. Every eye was upon me (?) — I was 
a representative of the daily * * * — the motive 
power of a facil pencil which no utterance could 
outstrip— one of its foremost, most enterprising, 
ubiquitous, etc. 

All this and more I imagined was coursirg 
through the mind of every spectator as I strove 
to maintain an erecfl bearing, and make my pas- 
sage to the chair assigned me. How near the 
facts coincided with my idea of the situation, I 
leave it for the reader to judge; how successful 
I was in assuming a reporteresque (?) demeanor 
may be illustrated by the manner of the callow 
youth who for the first time essays to "speak in 
public on the stage." 

The other reporters looked askanse upon me, 
and I eyed them back with professional effront- 
ery, so I thought; but in the light of the present 
1 have no doubt they regarded me as a decidedly 
verdant vegetable about to be soused into an ex- 
ceedingly sour pickle, and with glee awaited the 



94 ^y Trial Trip 

struggle when my imbecil forces would wilt be- 
fore the rush of opposing eloquence. 

Stately gentlemen ascended the platform. More 
reporters arrived, and were greeted with cordial- 
ity by the others of the craft. 

With what nonchalence they pointed their pen- 
cils and arranged their books for action. These 
preparations were sufficiently terrible to me to 
make thinking an agonizing operation, and ex- 
istence a bugbear. The hum of the assembling 
audience, the blare of the brass band in the gal- 
lery, the gloom of impending evil in the atmos- 
phere, my embarrassment, sense of inefficiency, 
of guilt, of — I hardly knew what — so overwhelmed 
me that I have a serious notion of dropping under 
the table and creeping out, preferring the role of 
deserter to that of a vanquished shorthander. 
But the "great unwashed" back of me, standing, 
turbulent — composed mostly of laboring men — 
drove that idea out of my head, and perforce I 
resolved to stick it out. 

The "ball" opened, and all the war-horses of 
the campaign were present. Each scribe had his 
fragment of the exercises to put in shape. 

Others preceded my speaker on the program, 
and sufficient sanity was vouchsafed me to pre- 
pare somewhat for the fray. At length my Ne- 
mesis arose. 



My Trial Trip 95 

By that time I must have resembled the famil- 
iar figure of the bird on our national specie — head 
eredt, every sense alert, elbows rampant, a sheaf 
of pencils in my fist. 

The speaker began very calmly; writer began 
with great flourish; latter individual manifestly 
nervous. 

My head was in a whirl; my characters assumed 
gigantic proportions; my book was too small; my 
pencil ungovernable. If the speaker had uttered 
more than the ordinary introductory platitudes I 
should have been undone; as it was his delivery 
was deliberate, his intonation faultless. I could 
take issue with nothing but my befuddled brain 
and the unbridled eccentricities of my pencil. If 
the word "candidate" was spoken, my pencil 
strode upstairs on the page before me, making a 
"can — " like a shepherd's crook; then plunged 
way down into the cellar-kitchen hunting for space 
to write the balance of the chartcter. 

Pencil points evaporated into thin air; the leaves 
of my notebook flew like a winnowing-mill; ray 
vertabrae curled and cracked; my eyeglasses slid 
serenely into space; my eye glazed; the scene 
around me faded. 

All this time . the orator was reeling ofE stuff 
about the election in Ohio. (How in the duce 
should I write "Ohio"?) "What a gorgeous 



96 My Trial THp 



line of democratic States," he said, "we shall 
have, with New York (I never could write 'New 
York') in the centre, and Ohio and Massachusetts 
as the right and left wings of the American eagle, 
which comes swooping down through the air up- 
on these Republicans." 

What scorn was concentrated in these words, 
and how like the said American eagle was ye re- 
porter swooping down upon the words "gor- 
geous," democratic," and the names of "States," 
in a vain endeavor to clutch and appropriate every 
syllable before lost to hearing. 

Just then a veteran reporter at my right hand 
remarked in interrogation points, — "Go for him, 
young fellow. ' ' I gave him a wild and absent 
look, still pursuing my devastating way. 

Oh, my! I was a buzzsaw with plenty of buzz 
— a hurricane on the hurry— a blockade of beer- 
bungs — a Chinese kite, all eyes and mouth — Ex- 
celsior on his last lap, but my banner read, — "Go 
for him, young fellow!" If I had a thought out- 
side of the speech I was pursuing, it was of those 
derisive words; and how I hated that reporter for 
the sarcasm! But such experiences have an end. 
The orator ceased speaking. 

Vehement applause followed closely on, but to 
my dazed sense it seemed to roll and reverberate 
from a vast distance like the rumble of a tempest 



My Trial Trip 97 

past due. During this outburst I partially re- 
gained reason; I groped for ray glasses; their re- 
covery made the scene take on a little brighter 
aspe(5l, but even now I was quite distant from 
mundarae affairs —my thoughts were far from co- 
herent. 

In a maze I followed my friend to the ne\AS- 
paper oiTice, feeling there was something perit up 
within me which must out or burst the receptacle. 

How I deciphered the greater part of my i>otes 
is a mystery to this day. If it had been difllcult 
to l>rand the burning rhetoric upon the pages, it 
was ten times more difficult to make a story of 
the hieroglyphics. 

Near the end of the speech I tapered ofi" with 
short, pithy sentences. I had to; I did not have 
on my book over four or five words of a period. 
I drew liberally upon my imagination to fill the 
gaps, but at the very climax my invention failed 
me. There I stuck; stuck fast and aghast — glued 
to the spot before this unsuggestive character. — 

The connection read, - "Yet I think there is 
still a chance for the Republicans, driven like rats 
from the State House, to find an abiding place. 
Let them go out and sit on * * * " 

Sit on what? 

The time for going to press approached rapid- 
ly. What a dashing of my hopes for success if 



98 My Trial Trip 



at the last moment found me still groping in the 
dark! 

When just one remove from sheer madness I 
sought my friend, who it happened remembered 
the peroration perfectly. Alas ! I remembered 
nothing; my memory deserted me an hour ago. 

Studying the notes together we made them read , 
— "Let them sit on 'bug light' down the harbor, 
or let them clamor buoy off the 'Graves.' " 

The end was attained. I would like to have 
cried "Eureka," but feared another held the most 
stock in the discovery. 

I had begun the transcript with the bearded 
"chestnut" — "The old ci'adle of liberty rocked, 
etc., * * *" and now 1 appended to my Mss. 
— ' ' ( Deafening applause. ) ' ' 

It is no pleasure today to review the pages of 
that notebook. Neither do I yearn to make such 
another maiden passage of the firey furnace of 
campaign oratory. 

Faneuil Hall may be full of patriotic sugges- 
tions for some, but for me it will be always con- 
sidered as the scene of a battle which was all but 
a "Waterloo," and left recollections as poignant 
as those of defeat. 

— The Cosmopolitan Shorlhander, 
July, 1886. 



BY GEORGE MAYNARD. 



I SUPPOSE there are very few students of our 
art who have not at some period in their career, 
had their "blue" days, when they felt that the 
path they were treading was like Jordan, "a hard 
road to travel. " They have struck some steno- 
graphic snag, that would not yield to their as- 
saults, or have wandered into some slough of un- 
certainty, where their feet could find no sure and 
solid groiuid upon which to stand. 

It is one of those common experiences of stu- 
dents of any science ; but perhaps shorthai:d has 
fully as many pitfalls for the unwary as any other, 
and especially when the tyro has taken up the 
study unaided by a competent teacher — a thing, 
by the way, that is not profitable for him to do, 
unless, in his case, time is of considerable less 
value than money. He who studies "shorthand 
without ateacher" w411 generally find, in the end, 
that, although patient perseverance has enabled 
him to overcome the enemy, he has had in reality 
to employ a teacher, who has, indeed, led him to 
his destination, but alas! by roundabout paths, 



lOo The Phonographer Triumphant 

and often several times over the same stony road. 
The name of that pedagogue is — Experience; 
and though, as the old adage hath it, her "fruit 
is sweet," I can't say so much for her present 
smile. 

This life of ours is, at the best, a long warfare, 
in which we fight innumerable battles. Happy 
he who wins them all. But let no learner of pho- 
nography ever despair of ultimate success. I 
speak from experience when I say that every 
obstacle in the path to successful verbatim report- 
ing can be overcome by determined effort. Let 
the student only make up his mind to faithfully 
master each step as he goes along, never relax 
his efforts to win the battle, and have an abiding 
faith in the result. The harder the conflict, the 
more satisfaction will the victory give. 

As a means of obtaining speed in writing, after 
having fully mastered the principles of outline 
formation and phrase writing, I have found great 
benefit in reporting lectures and political addres- 
ses. No matter how varied the subjects — the 
more so the better. In following the same speak- 
er through a long course of lectures, I have been 
surprised and gratified to see the difference be- 
tween my last effort and my first. The attain- 
ment of a high rate of speed is not a matter of a 
few weeks' labor. But, if you gain a little every 



The Pho7iographer Triumphant lol 

week, and keep np 3'our practice, yon will find, 
in the course of time, that you will be master of 
the situation. 

For acquiring facility in reading shorthand of 
any system, there is nothing like reading. You 
may write it all your lifetime, but if you never 
practice in reading, you will always hesitate. The 
best practice 1 ever found in that line was to take 
my old notebooks, containing reports of sermons, 
lectures and political addresses, extending back 
over many years, and spending two or more hours 
daily in continuous reading of them. When I 
became fairly proficient in that I would lay my 
book down on a stand in front of me, and attempt 
to deliver the addresses from the notes. At first 
I found this somewhat difficult, but finally I found 
that it became as easy a matter as if they had been 
written at a rapid rate in longhand — while care- 
fully written notes in a bold hand would present 
no difficulty whatever for delivery in public. To 
the court reporter, this facility in reading is a 
prime necessity; and no shorthand writer who 
takes pride in his art, should neg'ecfl this very 
important part of it. 

The reading of printed phonography is exceed- 
ingly useful, in an educational way, in the learn- 
ing of correcl outlines and proper phrasing ; but 
what the phonographer most needs is the ability 



102 The Phonographer Triumpha7ii 

to read rapidly and certainly his own notes. To 
read those of another person is, hke readhig their 
longhand, largely a matter of experience with 
their peculiarities of writing. We generally get 
so well acquainted with the handwriting of our 
friends, that we can read it — even when the strang- 
er might find it a Chinese puzzle to his uninitiated 
eye — because we have found out by long experi- 
ence, just where to look for dotless i's and un- 
crossed t's, and what kind of a serpentine trail 
means "have," and what other means "never." 
So in shorthand; what at first looks like the con- 
tortions of a skinned eel, finally resolves itself in- 
to order and harmony, and we find that, after all, 
there is a "method in the madness" of the writer. 

I am well aware that some noted shorthand 
writers use certain outlines for certain word.*;, 
which, so far as the principles laid down in the 
textbooks are concerned, might as well represent 
their direct: opposite, or, indeed, an\' other word 
in the language; but when you find that they ha- 
bitually do this— that the fearful hieroglyphic is 
a constant quantity in their penmanship, it all 
comes plain enough to you, and you have practi- 
cally nrastered a new system of shorthand. 

But however many battles j'ou fight, or to what- 
ever higlits you may climb, always bear in mind 
that the results will compensate you for your tcil, 



7ke Phonographer Triianphani 103 

no matter how arduous it may be, just as in the 
pursuit of any other practical knowledge. You 
will not hear the accomplished linguist or lawyer 
regret the hours or months of hard study he has 
given to secure his present ability ; nor will the 
stenographer who has successfully climbed the 
hill, look back with dissatisfaction over the weary 
way. 

Phonography is a practical science, and there- 
fore, in this practical age, it must take a high 
rank among human accomplishments. But it is 
not alone in the office, the court room, or the 
halls of legislation, that it is useful. In a thou- 
sand ways in life, it comes to the aid of its master, 
and as the world progresses, this will become 
more and more true. A practical knowledge of 
this art must ever be helpful to him who attains 
it, and is one of the best stepping-stones to suc- 
cess in life, that can be laid. 

Young men and women, don't be afraid of hard 
work; don't give up the ship, on account of a few 
storms ; and never, oh never, stop, till you be- 
come what I have chosen as the title of this arti- 
cle — a Phonographer Triumphant ! 



^<f^ 



By phonographic collaboration we mean the 
transcription by one phonographer of notes taken 
by another. The practice among phonographers 
of reading shorthand written by others is common 
enough. Every reader of a magazine hthographed 
in phonography does it. Every person who reads 
a letter written in phonography does it. The com- 
positors engaged in the office of the Joiiuial do it 
every day as they set type from shorthand manu- 
script supplied by numerous contributors .residing 
in all parts of the country. In all these cases 
there is collaboration in a sense; two parties con- 
tribute to the final result : one writes, and the 
otlier reads, the shorthand ; the one thing that 
they possess in common being a knowledge of the 
same system. Doubts have sometimes been ex- 
pressed as to whether the practice can be carried 
further, so that actual reporting notes shall be 
transcribed by some person other than the re- 
porter. We have no hesitation in saying that in 
many cases it could be done with perfect safety. 
Mr. Gurney-Salter explained at the late Congress 



Phoyiographic Collaboratio7i 105 

how in his firm the notes are taken at intervals 
from the writer and handed over to an assistant 
for transcription, so that at the close of the day, 
the transcript is ready for examination with the 
original notes, preparatory to being sent off to the 
printers. What can be accomplished in the Gur- 
ney system can be at least equally achieved in 
phonograph5\ Our own conviction is, that two 
phonographers would sooner learn to read each 
other's notes than two Gurney writers would. 
Something, of course, depends upon the pecul- 
iarities of the writer's penniiinship. The large 
army of scrawlers are apt to cultivate a .slovenly 
style of writing shorthand, and some people when 
writing rapidly, form thtir characters so badly as 
to defy the skill of the ablest phonogiapher to de- 
cipher them. The "character" of a man's short- 
hand varies quite as much as does the "charac- 
ter" of his longhand. Indeed it has been said 
that a man's shorthand is more distinctive than 
his longhand; and probably those ingenious peo- 
ple who profess to read in handwriting the ex- 
pression of the habits, temperament, and tastes 
of the writer, would surprise us all with some as- 
tonishing revelations, were they to turn their at- 
tention to the comparative study of individual 
"styles" in shorthand. But leaving out of sight 
the writers whose notes become under some cir- 



io6 Phonographic Collaboration 



curastances illegible to everybody except them- 
selves, it is a fact that there is much matter taken 
down by phonographers which other phonogra- 
phers could very well read and transcribe witli 
accuracy. In a few offices notes taken by one 
phonographer are transcribed by others. Often 
this is unnecessary, but when an emergency oc- 
curs which makes it desirable, the employer has 
occasion to congratulate himself on the circum- 
stance that all his shorthand clerks write one sys- 
tem. And such emergencies do occur more fre- 
quently than outsiders would suppose. 

The very legibility of phonography makes the 
practice of collaboration one capable of great ex- 
tension. The employer himself — and the em- 
ployers of the near future will be men largely re- 
cruited from the ranks of phonographers — may, 
if his shorthand assistant is absent, write out in 
phonography the letter or other document he de- 
sires the assistant to transcribe on returning to the 
office. The reporter taking down a speech, a full 
report of which is wanted for next morning's pa- 
per, may hand over his notes every five minutes 
to a phonographic transcriber, the most compe- 
tent man being thus kept at the reporter's table, 
and being freed from the drudgery of transcrib- 
ing, while at the same time the report itself reaches 
the printer's hands more rapidly than by ordi-.iaiy 



Phonographic Collaboration 107 

methods it would. The plan, we are satisfied, is 
quite feasible, and its more general adoption would 
be advantageous to reporters and the public alike. 
As we have already hinted, there are cases in 
which it would not be possibly, but we believe 
that these are few, and would tend to diminish if 
collaboration became common. 

The objection which non-phonographers and 
anti-phonographers (terms that are not convert- 
ible) have expressed to this scheme on the ground 
of variations between the writing of different pho- 
nographers, will not bear investigation. Thanks 
to theelasticity of phonography, there is a certain 
amount of choice open to phonographers in the 
matter of outline. It is supposed that such varia- 
tions make the writing of one man illegible to 
others. Nothing could be further from the fa(5l. 
All scientific men know that the "personal equa- 
tion" counts for something, and so long as our 
tastes are not reduced to one dead level of uni- 
formity, there will be divergencies, between the 
practice of individual writers, whether their sys- 
tem be phonography or any other. But those 
divergencies, as they exist among phonographers, 
are only such as a competent fellow-phonographer 
would in a few days thoroughly master. In most 
cases they would present to him no real difficulty 
at ail. Collaboration in shorthand is possible; but 



loS Pho7iographic Collaboration 

the one condition on which it can be made gener- 
al is that there shall be but one shorthand, just as 
there is but one longhand. All the indications 
favor the belief that long before the Centenary of 
Phonography is celebrated, this desirable "survi- 
val of the fittest" shall have become an accomp- 
lished fa(5t; and then the possibilities of useful 
phonographic collaboration will be infinitely great- 
er than they are at present. 

— Phonetic Jo2irnal, 1887. 



^^ 



A (Ipuffilton of #prr&. 

>^ 

"All this talk about speed," said a shorthand 
writer, "reminds me of a little experience that I 
had away back in 1866. I was then located in 
New York, and was a mere lad and comparatively 
new in the business. I had never been in a court 
room, and knew absolutely nothingabout the form 
of trials. I could write shorthand, however. There 
was a big murder trial going on in North Carolina, 
and they sent to New York in hot haste for a ste- 
nographer. I happened to be the only one at the 
time available, and Graham sent me down. I 
shall never forget that experience. About the 
first man I came into contact with was the Judge 
Advocate. He was as grave and sarcastic as a 
cross-cut saw half a mile from an oil can. He 
looked me over in a sneering way that I shall 
never forget, and seemed to be sadly disappointed 
over the fa(5l that there was not more cf me. 'The 
man whose shoes you have been sent to fill could 
write 200 words a minute,' he said gruffly; 'how 
many words can you write?* 'I do not know, ex- 
actly, sir,' I stammered. 'Well, I'll drop in your 



no A Question of Speed 

room in the morning before the court opens and 
put you through your paces, he said, sarcastically. 
When I got to my room I was about the worst 
frightened boy you ever saw. This was a nice 
sort of man for one who knew nothing about 
courts, to encounter. About the first thing I saw 
when I entered my room was an old volume of 
Webster's speeches. An idea at once struck me. 
I picked out one of those and practiced on it al- 
most all night. The consequence was that I had 
committed it to memory and had it right at my 
finger's ends. All that remained was to devise 
some scheme to get the Judge Advocate to seledt 
that particular speech for the test. Early next 
morning he came into my room, *Have you any- 
thing here that I can read to you from?* he ask- 
ed. 'I do not know,' I repHed, as carelessly as 
possible. 'Let us see. Ah! here's a book which 
seems to belong to the room. It's Webster's 
speeches. Maybe this might do.' I opened it 
carelessly at the particular speech which I had 
practiced upon and handed it to him. He ex- 
amined it carefully, and all the time my heart was 
in my mouth. I was afraid he would turn the 
pages and pick out some other speech. But he 
did not. 'I should think this would do,' he said, 
and proceeded to count off 200 words. Well, at it 
we went, and when the 200 words were written I 



A Oiteslion of Speed 1 1 1 

still had fifteen seconds to spare. He timed me 
with one of those old stopwatches — can see it yet. 
'Hum,' he said, 'I guess you will do.' And after 
that he seemed to think I was more of a man than 
I looked." 



i>I|ortI|an!i as an Art 

BY ISAAC S. DEMENT. 



The art of shorthand writing is fascinating, ex- 
hilarating and discouraging. If it were not fas- 
cinating, very few students would become accom- 
plished in it; that it is discouraging is proved by 
the fa(5l that so few become accomplished in it. 

It is exhilerating at every point where progress 
is apparent, and discouraging where it is not; it is 
fascinating in either case to the persevering and 
determined student. 

Therefore, shorthand is an art, for it possesses 
all the elements of an art: fascination, exhilera- 
tion, discouragement. 

If one would become a painter, the knowledge 
of colors is readily acquired, and even the obtain- 
ing of many tints, as, also, the handling of the 
brush; but the masterful sweep and touch of hue, 
that flow from an impulse sent out by a trained 
mind, are only produced after much discourage- 
ment and exhileration, overcome and enjoyed by 
the fascination of mastering a difficult problem. 

Just so with shorthand. The alphabet, the gen- 
eral principles and simple phrasing are soon ac- 



Shorthand as an Art. 113 

quired; but the sweep of the hand, during which 
there are blended harmoniously and accurately, 
cognate forms, without pause, without hesitation, 
and such perfedl phrasing that there are flashed 
back to the mind, as it gazes upon them, true 
word-pictures of the utterances they but photo- 
graph, only come as the fruit of unwavering per- 
severance in thought and in practice. 

Gold dollars are not made of wood, for the grain 
of it is too coarse. The finer the oil and the pig- 
ment, the better the painting, even in the hands 
of an artist. So with shorthand. We do not have 
verbatim longhand reporters, for longhand is too 
coarse and clumsy. The clearer the rules, and 
the less the load of arbitrary forms, the greater 
the ease of writing, even in the hands of an art- 
ist. 

Dictation, April, 18S6. 



^^ 



^l|ortljattb in 3l0urnaUam. 

BY A, E. LEON. 



"Sorry for you, old fellow — but you see the 
advantage of not knowing shorthand. Good 
night!" 

Is there anything more exasperating? Who of 
us — we, I mean, who are so often "stuck" with 
five column reports of court trials, lectures, and 
after-dinner speeches; we who at midnight, as the 
tradition runs, may be found in the secluded cor- 
ners of the office, coatless, collarless, it may be, 
and desperately perspiring, dictating to the patient 
typewriter, with our heels perched upon the edge 
of a neighboring desk, while the monotonous 
"click" marks the rentless approach of the hour 
for "going to press" — who of us, I say, has not 
heard that expression of patronizing sympathy, 
has not, in fadl, had it rung with innumerable 
changes in his ears until his blood had boiled with 
indignation, or until he has himself come to the 
morbid conclusion that the ability to do verbatim 
reporting is a delusion and a snare? 

Does it pay, all things considered, for the re- 
porter of today to master shorthand? Do those 



Shorthand in Journalism 115 

who already possess the abihty to follow a public 
speaker enjoy better present advantages or have 
better prospects than their longhand brethren ? 
To which class of journalists is the wider range of 
professional possibility opened, and if to the form- 
er, is there enough difference to warrant the ne- 
cessary expenditure of time and energy to acquire 
the art, atid to make up for the vast amount of 
genuine drudgery which admittedly falls to the 
lot of him who has made that art his own ? 

These are interesting questions — and import- 
ant ones, withal — questions which in this day of 
labor-saving, this era of mechanical swiftness and 
radicalism, are demanding consideration and set- 
tlement in every daily newspaper office of the 
country. They are questions of the survival of 
the fittest ; and according as each man, realizing 
this accepts as useful or discards as a clog and a 
hinderance the stenographic factor in our nine- 
teenth century journalism, will largely result his 
individual progress toward the common goal — 
professional success. 

What, then, are the facts? Now come the 
sceptic throng innumerable; listen to their dismal 
chorus : 

"We have no use 
for shorthand, because 

: it is the most disagreeable and tedious 



1 16 



Shorthajid in Jotirnalisni 



branch of newspaper work." 
the reporter who can do it commands 
no higher salary than the one who 
can't." 

if a man once demonstrates his ability 
for good verbatim drudgery, the ave- 
nue of office advancement is at once 
and forever closed to him." 
the use of stenography and continued 
reliance upon it, tends to injure the 
memory, without which a thorough 
journalist is as a ship without a rudder 
— a kite without a tail." 
it ruins a man's originality, makes him 
a mere cog-wheel in the intricate mech- 
anism of his office, and destroys what- 
ever he may have of genuine news- 
paper instincfl, and discriminating esti- 
mate of what is and what is not news. " 
What can be said in opposition to this formid- 
able arraignment ? Simply this : 

First, that, other things being equal, a working 
knowledge of shorthand is an invaluable help in 
securing a foothold upon any of the daily papers. 
Secondly, that, other things being equal, when 
it comes to a question of managerial economy and 
reduction of force, the man who has this knowl- 
edge will be the last to go. 



Shorthand in Joiir^ialisju i r 7 

Thirdly, that there are times, however rare, in 
the experience of every longhand journalist, when 
he needs to catch, verbatim, some specially im- 
portant utterance, and when not to be able to do 
so defaces the professional accuracy of his report, 
and brings home to himself a realizing sense of 
his own inefficiency. 

Are these answers not sufficient ? Mark 5'ou, 
I have said in every instance, other things being 
equal. Unfortunately, it must be admitted, in 
too many cases they are not equal. The average 
shorthand writer has been, and is, too prone to 
settle down contentedly into the narrow rut of his 
specialty, only arousing himself occasionally from 
his plodding to ask in wonderment why it is that 
he is not appreciated, and why his salary is not 
increased. What he needs is to have infused in- 
to him the true spirit of journalism. Then he 
will see that he has only made the mistake of as- 
suming that his art is in and of itself the ultimate 
disideratum in his profession, whereas it is but 
one of many tools for the accomplishment of a 
great end— the gathering and publishing of news. 
He has confounded the derrick with the granite 
block it was designed to lift. He has fallen into 
the error of supposing that he has hollowed out a 
sacred niche for himself in the gallery of the pro- 
fession, a trifle more exalted than his fellows, 



1 1 8 Shorthand in Joiirnalism 

whereas he had done only what every aspirant for 
success as a reporter should do — fitted himself 
for grappling with a possible emergency. 

The man who is merely a shorthan,c! writer, and 
the man who is not one, are neither wholly fittea 
for newspaper work. The manager of a grest 
Boston paper drove the nail home when he said, 
"We are not in want of shorthand writers — what 
we are looking for is journalists." 

This is the point exactly. That is the whole 
matter. The modern daily, with its hurly-burly, 
its rush, and roar, and innumerable editions, has 
no time nor money to waste in "monkeying" with 
specialists. Is there an important murder trial to 
be reported verbatim ? Good ! It is a matter of 
news, and any member of the staff should be com- 
petent to handle it. If 2S\y man is not competent 
to do the work, then does he fall just so far short 
of being thoroughly equipped in his profession; 
and there can be but one result — that man will 
ultimately be crowded to the wall. Is there a 
criminal mystery to solve, a case of bankruptcy 
to fathom, a fatal railroad accident to report ? 
The same man should be on deck, if need be, nor 
feel that he, being a stenographer, is exempt from 
that duty which calls "into action all the latent 
shrewdness and daring of his being. The English 
journals, in spite of their conservative tendencies, 



Shortha7id in Journalism 119 

long: ago awoke to an appreciation of the value of 
this "all-round" ability, and today the attainment 
of shorthand is there a standing requirement for 
admission to tbe profession. It is the man upon 
whom the management can call at any time, in 
any place, under any circumstances, to do any- 
thing; for whom the question of salary is self-ad- 
justing. 

Those, I am convinced, to whom this broader 
comprehension of the scope of their profession is 
as an outlying field of possibility, unmeasured and 
undreamed-of, are, invariably, the chronic "kick- 
ers" against the development of stenography in 
the newspaper office. Chief among them is the 
"fly" man — -that ubiquitous member of every 
staff. We all know him — he, the invincible ingen- 
ious and quick-witted ! His prodigies of achieve- 
ment are the crowning glory of the office; his pro- 
fessional conceit is equalled only by the blind 
stupidity of his ridicule of mechanical auxiliaries. 
Alas ! how slender is the chance of his salvation ! 
His deafness is as that of the adder in fable, who, 
to prevent hearing the voice of the charmer, lay 
with one ear to the ground and with his tail ob- 
stinately stuck into the other. Were it not so, 
he might long ago have made an important dis- 
covery — might long ago have realized that the 
"fly" man who is armed with stenography is made 



I20 Shorthand in Jouryialism 

doubly "fly" thereby. 

Of course a good deal of this sort of ridicule 
has a suggestion of sour grapes about i^, yet it 
has a serious influence in molding the opinions of 
the second class of objectors— the younger short- 
hand members of the force, who are thus, many 
of them, unthinkingly allured into a contempt for 
the art which they have been at so much pains 
and expense to master. The lapse of time will 
find them either cured or degenerated into the 
third and most pitiably hopeless class of journal- 
istic pessimists— the old stenographers, who find 
themselves at forty still floating in the dull and 
dismal eddy of professional stagnation. 

"Disagreeable and tedious," they croak. Grant- 
ed at the outset; but what truly enthusiastic dis- 
ciple of Pitman, Munson, or Graham, does not 
know the fascination, the excitement, of being 
able to follow, on the wings of thought, the words 
of a rapid speaker, and to hold them captive, at 
the ni'-rcy of his own sweet will, with the point 
of a "P'aber 3"? Then, too, is there no inward 
uplifting of pride, no secret exultation, no con- 
sciousness of reserve power, when some "depart- 
ment" mm, ordinarily a model of independence 
and professional impregnability, confesses him- 
self beaten, and telephones for stenographic rein- 
forcement from the main oSice, because, forsooth, 



Shorthand in Jourtialism 121 

the unexpected has been "sprung" upon him ? 
"Injurious to the memory" Bah! Only in 
the sense that books, and all other intellectual 
conveniences, are injurious. Nothing, hi my 
judgment, surpasses the study of shorthand for 
mental training. It is, in its very essence, an ac- 
quirement that lies far outside of the mental limits 
attainable by idiocy, and the application of its 
principles calls for the constant exercise of a great- 
er and steadier power of concentration than the 
technicalities of any other known accomplishment. 
The fastest writer is habitually, on the average, 
from six to a dozen words behind the speaker, 
and to carry these in the mind, while at the same 
time executing multifarious stenograpliic intrica- 
cies upon the paper, is a feat which can hardly be 
said, with truth, to lessen the brain's retentive 
faculty. As for the charge that the use of short- 
hand destroys the power of justly estimathig the 
value of news, it is hardly worth refuting. There 
are machine stenographers, as there are profes- 
sional automata of all kinds, but they are no more 
worthy of adverse criticism than is the veriest 
longhand tyro in the city department; and the 
stubborn fact remains that there are stenograph- 
ers who have reached the top-most rung of the 
journalistic ladder by basing their method of work 
upon a careful discrimination and a faithful rend- 



12 2 Shorthand in Joiirnalisvi 

ering of details. 

Let us, then, take heart, we q^ the newer 
school, for we have much to hope for. Let us 
rise to the occasion, read the signs of the times 
aright, and grasp at the possibilities of the future. 
Let us bear in mind the universal truth that 
knowledge of whatever sort, when used as a 
means, and not worshiped as an end, is power, 
ignoramuses to the contrary; nor let us, in a mo- 
ment of short-sighted and disgruntled petulance, 
kick at the treasure-laden basket of opportunity, 
only then to stand, Alnaschar-like, mourning over 
the shattered fragments of professional ambition. 

— The Writer. 



®l^f ^I^urtliattb Wv'xtn. 



Published an exceedingly 
valuable history of short- 
hand in 1816, this being 
JAMES HENRY LEWIS. the second English work 
1786 - 1853. upon the subjeH. 

The following is from 
' The Ready Writer, ' 21st 
edition. His system of 
shorthayid first appeared 
in 1812. 

He who in shorthand would excel 

Must know each mark and form it well; 

And if he wish to write with speed, 

And what he's written hope to read, 

Each word that's in the tables placed 

Must on his mind be deeply traced. 

In vain may he expedl perfection 

Who shuns or slights each choice direction; 

But he who will himself divert, 

And with the rules become expert, 

Can copy out whate'er he please, 

And read the whole with perfecft ease; 

Take down a sermon, or a speech, 

And speedily perfection reach. 

In short, in each important matter. 

He'll write as fast as tongue can chatter. 

— The Shorthand Educator. 



Bamt A^oatttag^s ta bt irrtupii from 
tljp i>tubg of piionograpliu. 



BY W. C ANN AN SMITH. 



I SOMETIMES wonder whether Isaac Pitman, 
when he was at work perfecting his system of 
Phonography, ever thought of the good he was 
doing his fellowman. Can he have looked down 
the vista of years, and seen dimly in the distance 
the rising sun of a busier day, when men would 
call for pens as swift as tongues ? He must have 
anticipated a period, of which we know the dawn, 
when the enthusiast's dream will be realized; 
'''' And gy-ant henceforth that writing be 
As sivift and free as speech.'' 

A backward glance over the intervening fifty 
or sixty years since the first publication of Pho- 
nography, places Mr. Pitman's work among the 
children of inspiration. There may be some writ- 
ers who will criticize the attempt on my part to 
date the commencement of shorthand writing from 
the publication of Mr. Pitman's works. Certain- 
ly, Phouograph}^ as we know it today, owes its 
parentage to him; whatever may be advanced in 
support of other systems. It was he who pre- 



Some Advantages to be Derived from the 125 



sented our art based upon such philosophic prin- 
ciples as to insure to everyone who might stretch 
forth his hand the blessings of a lengthened life. 

Nor is this all. He added a new branch to the 
CTirricuInm of our general education, — a branch 
that bids fair to become foremost among the first; 
possessing as it does the essential elements of a 
prime educator. 

It is soon noticed that phonorgaphers are a 
patient, painstaking race, whenever seem to grow 
weary in well-doing; and, no matter how puzzling 
a problem of hooks, crooks and dashes may be, 
they stick to it until solved, displaying a zeal 
worthy of the best cause. The patience exhibit- 
ed by Job in the midst of his greatest tribulations 
fades into insignificance, when compared with 
these illustrations of earnest determination. David 
Copperfield, one of the most famous students of 
this great art, was merely an exponent of a large 
class of his fellows; each of whom has since then, 
hewn his individual pathway through the forest 
of difficulties. 

The memory, too, receives a healthy stimulus 
from the study of this art. Full many a good 
thing is preserved to us through the point of a 
pencil; but many a better owes its crystalization 
into cold type to the tenacious memory of a Knight 
of the Pen, upon whose ears fell the words. I do 



126 Study of Phonography 

not wish to be construed as meaning that, in or- 
der to become proficient, one must memorize word- 
forms ; but, in the close application necessary to 
the proper study of Phonography, the memory is 
so trained through the eye and ear that, by imper- 
ceptible gradations, a high state of tenacity and 
mental alertness is attained. The books advise 
the student to pronounce aloud each word as 
written. Thus the ear is trained to distinguish 
the melodies in our language from the harsh 
sounds ; and the eye to know the good from the 
the bad. 

In this way, the phonographer unconsciously 
becomes an admirable literary critic, who is well 
able to judge at a glance the value of a composi- 
tion, and to separate the chaff from the wheat. 
How many men are there in our profession who 
are indebted to our art for all they know of the 
English Classics? An eminent writer has re- 
marked, "We want the gold of our literature, but 
many of us are too lazy to do the digging. ' ' Every 
phonographer possesses the miner in his art, who 
is always at his master's right hand, ready to obey 
the call of duty. By the very nature of things, 
shorthand and literature march hand-in-hraid, 
comprising a formidable alliance against ignorance 
and bigotry. It is difficult to conceive of an ig- 
norant expert stenographer. His must be a de- 



Some Advantages to be Dcyived from the 127 

plorable condition, who, with all these advantages 
lying within his grasp, will yet allow his sight to 
be clouded when every inducement is oflered him 
to rise to a higher plane, there to obtain a better 
and broader view ot" his surroundings. 

From this point of observation, one may see 
passing before him a galaxy of characters in a 
grand procession ; each of different individuality, 
and each swayed by different passions. What a 
splendid opportunity for the study of human-na- 
ture ! There goes the man who dictates in a halt- 
ing manner. He repeats, re-reads, expunges and 
adds. Now passes the man who talks fluently 
and without repetition. Here comes the fellow 
who sits at his desk, correcting copy with a pen, 
greatly to his stenographer's disgust, and to the 
ruination of the sheet. Last of all, there ap- 
proaches the ideal, who simply tells what he wants 
to say, allowing his secretary to use his own 
words. He it is to whom, above all others, we 
bow in grateful recognition. 

We have briefly seen how phonography pre- 
pares the way for other accomplishments. What 
single branch of study can equal it in this re- 
spe(5l ? It is the one profession whose require- 
ments are not to be found in the following par- 
allel of branches. The student pursues his even 
course, picking up bright bits of knowledge from 



128 Si7idv of Phonography 

I 

the by-paths, — never appreciating the progress 
he is making until a retrospecft reveals the won- 
drous stride. 

— The Universal Writer. 



^I|orll|attb. 



Fortunate art, by which the hand so speeds. 
The words are now of slower birth the deeds ! 
Dissembling age, that faith so often breaks, 
Learn hence to do more than the proudest speaks. 
Speak not the author's praise, his art commands 
Our tongue should be more crippled than our hands ; 
Nor can we scape this spight his speed affords 
From being overtaken in our words. 
What shall become of their divinity. 
Which scatter 'd through two hours tautologie, 
Gather 'd by these quick charaAers must hence 
T' indure the doom of such as can speak sense ! 
Print then that praise which volumes cannot hold 
But in thine own compendious figures told ; 
Figures which make us duller-handed think 
Words from the speaker's mouth dissolve to ink, 
And fall upon thy papers, or thy quill. 
Made of some nimble tongue, gave thee this skill. 
Still may that full pledg'd pen with moisture spring 
Snatched from the eagles, not the goose's wing. 

'Ihomas Shelton. 



Strange misconceptions are sometimes enter- 
tained, both as to speed with which words are 
uttered and the speed with which they are and 
can be written in shorthand. Young stenograph- 
ers, relying upon their own guesses instead of on 
results of a careful test, occasionally over-estimate 
their attainments in the way of speed to an extent 
that is really ludicrous. When an applicant for 
a position as shorthand clerk or transcriber, con- 
fidently affirms his ability to write one hundred 
and fifty words a minute, and proves capable of 
managing but one hundred with difficulty, it is 
evident that he is the subjedl of a delusion that 
will probably bring him into discredit. On the 
other hand there are employers of shorthand to 
whom the statement that one can write so many 
words a minute convey no meaning whatever. 
Beyond the broad distinctions between a fast and 
slow speaker or a fast and slow writer, their ideas 
of speed in speaking and writing do not extend. 
Whether loo words a minute represents great 
facility of writing, or merely a trifling degree of 
skill, they could not say with any certainty. If 



130 speed in Shorthand 

a candidate for a post in their office were to de- 
clare himself able to write 500 words a minute, it 
might occur to them that this was rather quick; 
but they would not know that it was impossible. 
In their case, ignorance on such a point is of lit- 
tle consequence. So long as the stenographic 
work that they require is efficiently performed, 
they are content, and have no need to trouble 
themselves with the statistics of the work. With 
the shorthand writer, however, and particularly 
with the learner, the case is different. To know 
the precise speed with which he is able to take 
legible notes, enables him to say with some degree 
of certainty what kinds of work he is competent 
to undertake. His successive accretions of speed 
not only represent landmarks in his progress, but 
give indications also of his fitness or unfitness for 
tasks of a special description. Not indeed that 
speed is the only thing, or the chief thing, to be 
considered when fitness or unfitness are to be de- 
cided. Nevertheless, speed is an important ele- 
ment — an element that no stenographer, what- 
ever his capacity in other respects, can atTord to 
ignore. The possession of the most brilliant tal- 
ents, and the most highly cultivated intelle(5l will 
not save from grief the shorthand writer whose 
speed in writing is below that which the exigen- 
cies of his particular work demand. Hence the 



speed in Shorthand 13X 

phonographer who knows, and can state with 
tolerable exactitude, whenever occasion requires, 
the precise speed with which he can write, is in 
possession of a piece of information which ought 
to prove of special value to himself. 

Unfortunately, misconceptions as to speed pre- 
vail in other quarters where ignorance is from 
every point of view, inexcusable, and where in- 
deed its effects may be mischievous. Some years 
ago, an American author produced a book which 
would never have been written but for certain ex- 
aggerated estimates that he had formed with ref- 
erence to the rapidity of speech. Starting with 
the statement that the speed with which words 
were uttered reaches 350, 400 and son;etimes as 
many as 500 words a minute, and impressed with 
the fa<5l that for a shorthand writer to write 200 
words in the same space of time is regarded as a 
remarkable achievment, this writer set his ingen- 
ious intelledl to work to discover a method of 
avoiding the great loss that so striking a disparity 
between the capabilities of speech and the capa- 
bilities of shorthand must necessarily occasion.* 
Among other noteworthy expedients which he 
suggested for meeting the supposed difl&culty was 
a novel application of Mr. Charles Reade's doc- 



* Vide Fowler's '''Shorthand Executio7i." 



132 speed in Shorthand 

trine that we ought to accustom ourselves to write 
with both hands. We are not aware that Mr. 
Reade thought it possible to write with both hands 
at the same time. But the American author to 
whom we are indebted for the extension of the 
idea to shorthand, was so convinced that that 
could be done, that he gravely propounded a 
scheme of "simultaneous writing," as he termed 
it, which involved the training of the left hand to 
write concurrently with the right hand, so that 
whilst the latter was taking down the first words 
of a sentence, the former would be taking down 
the second, and so on. In this way it was calcu- 
lated that the speed could be readily redoubled. 
What surprised us was that an author so fertile 
in suggestions should have overlooked the enorm- 
ous advantage that would accrue by enlisting the 
services of the feet as well. We remember see- 
ing, a few years since, at the museum at Ant- 
werp, an artist who, having lost both his arms, had 
trained his feet with such nicety that he was able 
to earn a living by making and selling copies of 
the famous productions of Rubens and other Flem- 
ish masters exhibited there. If the feet could be 
taught to paint pictures, they could undoubtedly 
be taught phonography; and if the simultaneous 
use of both right and left hand is feasible in re- 
porting, there should seem to be no insuperable 



speed in SJiortha^id 133 

difficulty in imparting the same accomplishment 
to the "pedal extremities." If this were achiev- 
ed the stenographer's speed would, by parity of 
reasoning, be of course quadrupled. With the 
majority of speakers a man might contrive to con- 
fine the operations to his hands but on encounter- 
ing an exceptionally rapid orator, he could call in 
the aid of the other trained "members," The man 
who should successfully perform this task, and 
successfully transcribe his four sets of notes after- 
wards, would achieve a triumph before which all 
the remarkable stenographic feats hitherto re- 
corded would pale into insignificance. 

Seriously, however, our author's whimsical 
proposals result wholly and er.tirely from an er- 
roneous notion of the real speed of public speak- 
ers. What are the facts? We will endeaver to 
state them as briefly as we can, promising that 
our estimates represent averages only. Every 
speaker varies more or less, not only on different 
occasions but also in different parts of the same 
speech. It must be remarked also that any at- 
tempt to classify people as regards their speed of 
utterance is necessarily to some extent imperfecSl, 
because in this matter particularly, there are in- 
dividual exceptions which will not fall within any 
rule. Absolute precision is, therefore, not to be 
expected, Nevertheless, it is not difficult to at- 



134 Speed in Shorthand 

rive at a statement of the fa(5ls that shall be sufl5- 
ciently accurate for general purposes. Takmg 
then, first the numerous body of legal, commerc- 
ial and literary men who employ shorthand clerks 
and amanuenses, it will be found that these vary 
considerably in point of speed. The art of dic- 
tating is an art that is not acquired at once. The 
business man to whom it is new, will probablj' 
dictate very slowly at first; but his speed will in- 
crease with practice, and in a few years he may 
be able to tax the ability of a really rapid writer. 
There are business men who dictate on an aver- 
age not more than forty or fifty words a minute, 
and some men never attain the power of dictat- 
ing at a much higher rate than that. Sentences 
do not always form themselves in the mind — es- 
pecially a mind weighted with a sense of the great 
responsibilities that attaches sometimes to even 
the choice of a phrase —with nothing like the cel- 
erity with which the tongue is prepared to utter 
them or the attendant phonographer to take them 
down. Our observation leads us to the opinion 
that the majority of employers of shoithand do 
not dictate correspondence, or other original mat- 
ter, at more than 120 words a minute. Even in 
these cases such common phrases as "I am in re- 
ceipt of your letter," "I beg to acknowledge the 
receipt of your letter," etc., are delivered with a 



speed 171 Shorthand 135 

fluency far greater than that figure represents. 
With the energetic city man, gifted with a ready 
mind and tolerable flow of language, 150 words a 
minute is by no means uncommon, though we 
believe it to be above the average; and there are 
busy men whose utterance, whilst delivering 
themselves perhaps of a long string of familiar 
technical expressions, approaches the rapidity of 
animated conversation. In fa<5l it may be said 
that speed varies more in this department of short- 
hand work than in any other. Anything from 40 
words a minute to 180 is to be expected, though, 
of course, both extremes are rare. The short- 
hand writer engaged in this class of work has, 
however, one advantage over many of his profes- 
sional bretheren. He has alwa3's to take down 
from a speaker to whose peculiarities he scon be- 
comes accustomed, and for whose pet phrases he 
is therefore soon prepared. 

To turn now to another variety of speaker. 
The clergyman as a rule is measured ar.d delib- 
erate, as becomes the gravity of his themes, though 
there are impetuous orators in the pulpit as well as 
elsewhere. Many preachers there are whose de- 
livery seldom rises above 120 words a minute, and 
is generally below that rate. If we say that the 
eloquence of the pulpit carries from about 90 to 
150 words a minute, we shall be within the mark. 



136 speed in Shorthand 

Other public speakers — politicians, lecturers, and 
so forth — talk faster than preachers. The mini- 
mum is higher than of the pulpit; and when pas- 
sionate indignation rouses thera to vigorous de- 
nunciation of some real or fancied wrong, or en- 
thusiasm kindles them to a glowing eulogium of 
some hero whom they admire or some cause that 
they support, words are poured forth in a torrent 
which it seems prosaic to estimate in figures. 
But the torrent has its speed, and when calmly 
counted will not often be found to consist of so 
much as 180 words a minute. We therefore put 
the rate of this class of speakers at from 1 20 to 
180 words a minute. One hundred and fifty is a 
very good average which many public speakers 
never exceed. Barristers are perhaps, as a class, 
the most rapid speakers to be met with, and it is 
in some respects fortunate that speeches made by 
them in their professional capacity are so seldom 
required to be reported verbatim. The oratory 
of the barrister is, however, by no means confined 
to the law courts, and the efEcient reporter must 
be prepared to deal with it when he meets it, as 
he will occasionally, elsewhere. 

Conversation frequently reaches 200 words a 
minute, and sometimes even oversteps that limit; 
but the additional effort involved in public speak- 
ing makes anything above 180 words a minute 



speed in Shorthand 137 

exceptional. Phenominal speakers may deliver 
themselves of 200 words a minute, but of the few 
men capable of addressing an audience at that ab- 
normal speed, scarcely anybody will discourse 
matter deserving the honor of a verbatim report. 
American orators may be, and probably are, as a 
rule, somewhat faster speakers than their British 
cousins. Yet we take leave gravely to doubt 
whether the United States possesses a public 
speaker, or a private speaker for the matter of 
of that, we do not say accustomed to utter, but 
who on some occasions does utter, even 350 words 
a minute. That it would be absolutsly impossible 
for any man, by dint of training, to drill himself 
into ennunciating 350 words in one minute we do 
not assert. We have not succeeded in finding 
any man who, on being tested, proved capable of 
articulating 300 words a minute. If some excep- 
tional individual were discovered who could read- 
ily contrive to speak 350 words in that space of 
of time, the performance could not be sustained 
for more than a single minute, and it would con- 
sist simply of an unintelligible jumble of sounds 
that would convey to the hearer no meaning 
whatever. Four hundred words a minute we re- 
gard as a physical impossibility, to be ranked 
with other marvels known to us only through the 
medium of American literature. 



speed in Shortha7id 



That svich remarkable misappreliensioiis should 
have been seriously entertained by a writer who 
devoted his thought and ingenuity to the subject 
is a striking illustration of the pitfalls that lie in 
wait for even clever men who negle(5l ordinary 
tests. Nothing is easier to ascertain than the 
average speed of any speaker, or of any short- 
hand writer. By the simple expedient of observ- 
ing the exa(5t time when a speech commences and 
the exadl time when it concludes, and by count- 
ing the number of words uttered by the speaker 
in the intervening period, and by repeating the 
process with a few of that particular orator's 
speeches, his average speed can be ascertained 
with strictly scientific accuracy. Eut it is far 
easier to weave beautiful, though impracticable, 
theories than to undertake the exacting labor 
which the preparation of trustworthy statistics 
always entails. 

For writers desirous of knowing their precise 
attainments in the way of speed, a simple test is 
at no time unavailable. The information is in 
many instances useful to them. Phonographers, 
as our readers are aware, are now enabled, by 
passing a genuine examination, under conditions 
that reduce the possibility of mistake to a mini- 
mum, to obtain an official certificate which will 
place their actual facility of waiting quite beyond 



speed in Shof'ihand 139 

doubt. That they will avail themselves in large 
number of this means of testing their skill we do 
not doubt. The results of such examinations 
will help considerably towards dispelling the er- 
roneous notions that still prevail on this subje<5t. 
— Pho7ieiic Journal, 1883. 



:^ 



BY GBORGE MAYNARD. 



The value of the context in the decipherment 
of shorthand notes has been, I beUeve, some- 
times underrated. It is claimed that too much 
reliance is placed upon this aid, and that the 
stenographer should be able to practically read 
the text without any context. But how far is 
this idea corre(5l? Not absolutely so, I am fain to 
be'ieve. It is certainly not applicable in reading 
longhand writing — I mean such as Virginia law- 
yers once had the reputation of using. 

I think we little realize how much we are de- 
pendent upon the general idea of the context, 
even in fluently reading ordinary print. As the 
rapid reader of a newspaper or book skims along, 
like a swallow in its flight, across the printed 
page, he intuitively feels, to a large extent, from 
what has preceded, what must follow. The sub- 
jec'l and predicate, the verb and its obje(5l, the 
preposition and the word it governs, must follow 
each other in grammatical sequence and form; 
while negatives and afi&rraatives are largely fore- 
shadowed by what has already passed over. Fa- 



Text and Context 141 

miliar phrases and quotations, when once entered 
upon, trip ahnost unconsciously from the tongue — 
the eye merely glancing easily along the line in 
search of any change or break. 

In longhand writing of the Satanic style — for 
I can only believe that Satan inspires some of it — 
we often find words which no sane man would 
ever suppose meant anything like what their 
writers intended them for. A half-formed letter 
or two followed by a dash, never did and never 
will convey to the mind of the general reader any 
definite idea, unless he has some side light upon 
the subje(5t. He is in the fix of the school boy 
struggling with a difficult passage in Caesar or 
Xenophon — he is "stuck" most woefully upon 
some phrase, and there he will remain deep in the 
mud, unless the context comes to his relief. 

Now in phonography, one has the same ex- 
perience, only, perhaps, in a greater degree. It 
is impossible to always decide how an unvocalized 
outline should be read, unless the words going 
with it are taken into consideration. There are 
many outlines, even in the same position, which 
represent several different words, and for which 
no system of shorthand has provided distinctive 
forms brief enough for use iu verbatim reporting. 
Such words are ball, bill, bile and boil; blaze, 
blows and bless; streak and strike. It depends 



142 Text and Context 



upon the context how these outlines shall be 
read; and this, together with a due admixture of 
common senfe, will be likely to give the corre(5l 
reading. 

Forms that cannot be correctly deciphered by 
aid of the context, should never be written un- 
vocalized. But to say that all combinations of 
words can be correctly read without its aid, is 
mere bosh. Especially is this true of parts of 
sentences made up of logograms, which each re- 
presents in the briefest form several different 
grammalogues, and also possibly the full outlines 
of some other words. 

The context is useful to the shorthand reader, 
as it ever was to the reader of the Scriptures. By 
this, I do not mean that total and continuous re- 
liance should be placed upon it in reading— since 
the phonographer should familiarize himself with 
outlines so thoroughly as to be able to catch read- 
ily and give their true value to all distinctive ones 
— but, in cases of doubt, the context must de- 
cide, and that it does so, I feel to be certain from 
the fact that I rarely find difficulty in reading my 
own notes with a fair degree of readiness — even 
those of several years' standing- though a vowel 
among them is about as hard to find as the tradi- 
tional needle in the haymow. And I am fain to 
say that this legibility has come quite largely 



Text and Context 143 

from a judicious use of phrasing and position. 

Speaking of legibility, I believe that phonog- 
raphers, especially young ones, would do well to 
use the dot (or stroke) a little more freely to re- 
p-esent the final ing. Where they are system- 
atically omitted, there are cases where the read- 
ing becomes blind, even with the help of the best 
context. For instance, if we read that some one 
said to a group of pugilistically inclined individ- 
uals, "This fighting must be stopped," how are 
we to know that the true wording is not, "This 
fight must be stopped," unless the ing is repre- 
sented ? 

Finally, there is some shorthand so fearfully 
and wonderfully written, that no one (save per- 
haps the writer) can read either text or context. 
When it comes to deciphering that, I beg to be 
excused. L,ife is too short ! I might be able to 
guess out the India ink puzzles on a Chinese 
laundry check, but I have seen some specimens 
of what dared to call itself Benn Pitman phonog- 
raphy, written by ore who had a national reputa- 
tion, that make me think of a pine forest after a 
cyclone. No wonder such phonography can be 
written at three hundred words per minute ! 

— The Phonographic JcAiTval, November, i8g6. 



In the study of shorthand there are several 
things to be noted among which are these. First, 
it is necessary for the student to make up his mind 
that the art is one worth much toil to acquire ; 
and that it will be necessary for him to apply him- 
self cloiely to his work. Secondly, it will be ob- 
served by the student that the brain as well as 
the hand needs training ; for it will become ap- 
parent that it is impossible for him to place upon 
paper signs for words unless he has first heard 
and comprehended the sounds of the words, sep- 
arated the consonants and vowels, and made up 
his mind which consonant outline is the best for 
the particular word under consideration. When 
this has been done the student is prepared to 
write. This is a complicated operation, but is one 
that must be performed, and also one that in the 
course of time is often unconsciously performed 
by the writer, that is to say, the writer is no more 
conscious of thinking of the separate strokes that 
represent the sounds of the words than he is con- 
scious of calling to mind the peculiar turns and 
curls which he makes when he writes an ordinary 



The Shidy of Shorthand 145 



script letter. Now, it will be readily understood 
that in order that the brain may become accus- 
tomed to this new and complicated mental opera- 
tion, the student must practice faithfully and 
steadily and must be prepared to make no notice- 
able progress for, perhaps, weeks at a time. But 
these weeks of practice are by no means lost time. 
During this season of continued mental and man- 
ual effort, the tissue of the brain is becoming 
hardened, and the student is getting used to the 
new style of writing. The brain must be con- 
sidered as muscle. Its strength is brought out 
and kept up by continual use, and only use will 
harden and make it capable of hard work. It is 
clear, then, that no student should allow himself 
to become discouraged by an apparent lack of 
progress in acquiring speed. Speed in shorthand 
is the result of the abihty of the writer to think 
quickly, and move his hand quickly, and in order 
to gain this capacity, it is obvious that much prac- 
tice must be had. For instance it has been found 
that on one day it was impossible for the student 
to write more than say 60 words per minute. Up 
to that time it would seem that the student's 
brain had been assimilating new principles and 
becoming hardened and accustomed to the opera- 
tion necessary in thinking of shorthand characters. 
The next day or the next week the student has 



146 The Study of Shorthand 

found that the line has been crossed, and to his 
great surprise and immense satisfaction, he has 
found himself able to write at a speed of 70 or 75 
words per minute. Now, this extra speed was 
not gained in a day or in a week; it is the result 
of the arduous labor of the student for the pre- 
ceding months, and if he imagines that he is Hkely 
to realize another burst of speed of 10 or 15 words 
a minute in the next day or week, he is very sure 
to be disappointed because the process of harden- 
ing the brain and training his hand to still great- 
er effort, will take up perhaps as much time as he 
had devoted to that work before he made his first 
appreciable gain of speed. In this fadl there is to 
the hard working student reason for great encour- 
agement; for it is certain that the sun shines, al- 
though clouds obscure it and it is hidden from our 
vision, that steady, intelligent practice in short- 
hand writing will bring to the practitioner the 
speed which he desires. The only limit to the 
rate of speed which may be acquired by practice 
is a constitutional one. Some people are so con- 
stituted that it is absolutely impossible for them 
to complete a rapid mental operation. For such 
as these there can be no rapid shorthand writing; 
but happily this class is not a very large one. 

Now we may judge from these observations 
that it is not wise to throw too much of the labor 



The Study of Shorthand 147 

of rapid writing upon either the brain or the hand. 
In some shorthand systems an attempt has been 
made to contra(5l the signs representing words to 
their least possible geometrical size and the re- 
sult has been that writers of such systems are 
compelled to load their memories with long lists 
of special word signs and contractions, and much 
of the labor of reporting which should more pro- 
perly be done by the hand is thrown upon the 
brain. Another result of this style of writing is 
a danger of misreading the very small contracted 
forms and any one who knows anything about 
shorthand and how it is usually written at great 
speed knows that it is to most people almost an 
impossibility to form characters rapidly written 
with any degree of precision. This being the case, 
the smaller the characters when properly written, 
and the more hooks and curls and circles engraft- 
ed upon the single stem the greater is the mechan- 
ical difficulty of writing the signs correctly and of 
course the greater difficulty in reading the words. 
It is also well to avoid a long sprawling style of 
shorthand, because that kind of writing, (the 
characters being made very large and thrown out 
of position), is perhaps as difficult to read as the 
very contracted style. Moreover, the writer is 
put to much trouble and uses too much paper; is 
compelled to turn too often the leaves of his note- 



148 The Study of Shorthand 

book and cannot do his work with celerity, dig- 
nity and grace which characterize the expert 
shorthand writer. 

Therefore I would say, cultivate the happy 
habit of writing characters of a neat and uniform 
size, and make it a point to write characters in 
position, and with due observation of the proper 
angles. Do not be led away by the idea that much 
phrasing is of advantage, and conducive of speed. 
Experts have found that in actual and very rapid 
writing, it is necessary to follow the speaker as 
closely as possible, and the curious fa(5t has been 
developed that when this is done the writer rare- 
ly phrases except to join the most common com- 
binations of words together, and the page of notes 
written at high speed show the words written al- 
most without phrasing and with a regular or ir- 
regular spacing which indicates the very style of 
the speaker, showing how from time to time he 
had uttered several words with great rapidity, 
bringing them close together, and at others had 
made pauses of greater or less length between 
the words. 

The student should understand that in order to 
fit himself for shorthand work he must have a 
knowledge of the English language sufficient to 
enable him to wiite grammatically and spell and 
punctuate correctly. Having this knowledge and 



The Study of Shorthand 149 



the determination to succeed, and being willing 
to work against apparent lack of progress at all, 
he may rest assured that it is only a question of 
time when he will have the proud satisfaction 
(and it is a source of pride) of feeling that he can 
enter any assembly and sitting down before any 
speaker, be prepared to record correctly every- 
thing that is said, and make a readable transcript 
of his notes. 

MAX. — Browne* s Phonographic Monthly. 



®l|?0rg B^rsua prarttr?. 

BY GEORGB MAYNARD. 



In the development of shorthand systems, as 
in any other art or science, a theory is a good 
thing, if it will only work in practice; if it will 
not, it certainly should not be relied upon too 
closely, in facft it is too often "dead wood" cum- 
bering the phonographic field. If it were possi- 
ble to build up a system of shorthand theoretic- 
ally perfecft, and without any exceptions to gen- 
eral rules, and which, at the same time, would 
answer every requirement of speed, ease of writ- 
ing and legibility, it would indeed be a grand ac- 
complishment. But that this ever had been, or 
is likely at present to be done, I do not think even 
the most enthusiastic phonographer can claim, 
any more than we could justly lay a similar claim 
for the scientific perfection of our Knglish alpha- 
bet, or of any language, living or dead. There 
are conditions and circumstances constantly aris- 
ing, which make departures from established 
theories necessary or desirable. 

All the briefer systems of shorthand now known 
have been obliged to sacrifice theory to some ex- 



Theory Versus Practice 151 

tent. In some of them this is shown in the diff- 
erence between the so-called corresponding style 
and the reporting forms. Theoretically, the words 
"firm" and "form" should be written with the 
same outlines; but it has been found advisable, for 
legibility's sake to differentiate them, so to speak. 
The same can be said of many other conflicting 
outlines, and is true, to a greater or less extent, 
of all systems that are of practical value to the 
verbatim reporter. Some systems, in attempting 
to follow theor}^ have adopted awkward and cum- 
bersome forms, which must inevitably militate 
against their success in this rapid age. 

What we are looking for in shorthand, is re- 
sults. That system which will produce the best 
— viewed from every standpoint — must eventu- 
ally be the successful competitor in the race. The 
practical stenographer cares not so much for brill- 
iant theories about his system of shorthand, as he 
does for an easy, rapid and safe means of attain- 
ing his desired ends. The outlines which will 
flow from the pen, as the river glides ocean ward, 
and yet assume an individuality of its own, which 
cannot be lost in the company of its fellows, is 
worth more to him than the thoeretically corredl 
one, that does not possess these qualities. It is 
well known that the shortest outlines are not al- 
ways the easiest to make, and therefore not always 



152 Theory Versus Practice 

conducive to speed. Look at a flash of lightning 
as it streams from the sky to the earth. It does 
not go in a dire(5l course, but in a zigzag, or, more 
properly, a spiral one — that is to say, it follows 
the line of least resistance. So must the pen of 
the shorthand writer, if he would attain the high- 
est speed. That rapi 1 writers either strive to, or 
unconsciously do follow this natural law, is shown 
by the changes in the forms of outlines and the 
direction of strokes — the greater the speed, the 
more striking the change. Angles are softened 
down, curves change their direction, circles as- 
sume an oval form, and straight lines lose their 
rigidity. In the case of a skillful writer, this 
tends to beautify and give life to his phonographic 
notes, and is no disadvantage. 

As to theory in shorthand, it may be said that 
when the violation of a general rule will result in 
the production of a large number of outlines of a 
brevity of form or facility of execution that could 
not otherwise be attained, then it would seem to 
be wise to make the exception even establishing 
it as a subordinate rule, if he will. But if the re- 
sults attained are of so trifling a nature as not to 
compensate for the infraction of the general rule, 
then such an exception would be unwise. 

As to the use of absolutely arbitrary outliries, 
it is a question how far they may be advantageous. 



Theory Vt'rs7is Practice 153 

Some systems of shorthand have employed them 
extensively, but it has been perhaps more from a 
poverty of material from which to construe?!: out- 
lines of the necessary brevity, than from any other 
cause. In the Pitmanic systems, there would 
seem to be little need of these expedients, except 
in special cases, when each stenographer can eas- 
ily supply his own "short cuts" for words or 
phrases to suit the occasion. 

In the matter of phrasing, however, it would 
seem as if the practice of abbreviation of full forms, 
or the use of arbitrary characters, might be gen- 
erally extended, with good results, especially in 
the matter of intersected phrases. 

In what I have written, I would not be under- 
stood as condemning theor5\ It is only a too 
blind adherence to it that I would disparage. 
Shorthand without a theory must necessarily be 
like a building without a plan; but shorthand that 
is all theory, is better for the philosopher than for 
the reporter. The results of experience are of 
more practical value than an}- mere theorizing 
can ever be. And so I hope that if any veteran 
in the art ever catches the writer in any serious 
lapses in his statements, he will not hesitate to 
infli(5l the deserved criticism. We should all 
have an eye to the good of the cause, and there 



154 Theory Versus Practice 

is nothing better for any cause than candid dis- 
cussion — even in politics. 

— J he Phonographic Journaly 
October, 1896. 



f Unman Bima^vnp^n, 

SPEECH BY JAMES ABBOTT AT BANQUET OP 
CHICAGO STENOGRAPHERS, 1880. 



We know but little about the reporter who 
flourished on the banks of the Tiber during the 
early period of the Roman republic. History in- 
forms us, however, that such an individual did 
live and move and have a being. Perhaps it was 
largely a matter of locomotion, if then, as now, 
the practice of the profession required the dex- 
trous use of legs as well as brains. The Report- 
er, who as Special Correspondent of the Athens 
Daily News did the "mill" between Romulus and 
Remus is not mentioned by Livy, who likewise 
omits to mention the ubiquitous Press Represent- 
ative accompanying Tarquin to count his quarters 
and laps in his walk from Rome upon his abdica- 
tion. 

But as Rome grew in population and wealth, 
the reporters increased in numbers and influence. 
The infrequent allusions to them by early histor- 
ians become numerous later on, until, in the days 
of Cicero, we find the stenographers an import- 
ant political element, whose rights were duly 



156 Ye Romayi Stenographer 

considered in the making up of the slates for the 
spring and fall plebiscita. 

As now in this Western Metropolis; as now in 
the Eternal City, they were united by the ties of 
brotherly love. Their services were solicited by 
wealthy patricians. Their skill did many azes to 
their coffers bring. Their liberality toward the 
applewoman, whose stand was on the curb oppo- 
site the ticket office of the Coliseum, did occasion 
much remark. In short, they were "bloated 
bondholders," with surplus receipts securely in- 
vested in Four per cents and schedule of rates 
constantly advancing. Fees were at first, for per 
diem, a sestertium; for transcripts, five denarii a 
folio; but in the later days of their prosperity, 
charges were regulated only by the client's abil- 
ity to respond. Stenography came to be used as 
a stepping-stone to future greatness by ambitious 
youths from the provinces. The novitiates were 
always received with open arms by their brethren 
at the Capitol. The veterans would take notes 
beside them, to assist them in their labors; and 
would compare transcripts, written up free of ex- 
pense, to see that the youngsters made no mis- 
takes. According to Tacitus, Scipio Africanus 
was acquainted with a young man whose brother 
studied shorthand. Pompey is said to have first 
made a shining mark by blacking boots in a Re- 



y^e Roman Stenographer 157 

porter's office. The emperors retired on a pen- 
sion for life all stenographers who had taken one 
hundred divorce cases. There were giants in 
those days among the craft, whose fame extend- 
ed from the Hellespont to the Pillars of Hercules; 
but I forbear to state the number of hundred 
words per minute they could write, or how with 
one hand they could take notes, while with the 
other they made up calendars and executed daily 
copy, lest my reputation for truth be irreparably 
damaged. 

The devices resorted to by learned Roman ad- 
vocates to curry the favor and secure the service 
of a stenographer were among the "ways that are 
dark, and the tricks that are vain. " On such oc- 
casions, after learned advocate had agreed to pay 
gold instead of greenbacks, and to watch all the 
Reporter's cases and telegraph when they were 
reached, that wily individual would reply, having 
an eye on a postoffice or a collector ship, for which 
the advocate could lay the pipes and give a sub- 
stantial boost: "Well, Charley, you're all really 
good fellows, but I want to favor you. I think I 
shall really have to attend to your case this time," 
well knowing that he could repeat the same false 
promise to the next advocate whose backing is 
likely to be needed. 

As the recurring seasons brought each year to 



158 Ve Roman Stejiographer 

a close, the Knights of the Art Mysterious as- 
sembled themselves together at the Annual Ban- 
quet of the Stenographic Orphans, where the 
"feast of reason and flow of bowl" was a thing 
long to be remembered. Then did Bacchus hold 
high carnival. When the festivities were over 
and the effusions of eloquence had subsided, these 
Knights would vote to have their proceedings 
printed in pamphlet form, to be laid away beside 
the Pandecks and Twelve Tables among the arch- 
ives of Rome; and, furthermore, would leave the 
committee on publication to defray the expenses 
of the same out of their own pockets. 

Among the illustrious individuals who adorned 
our profession in those ancient times, there was 
one man who was a power of strength to his less 
opulent brethren, whose wealth was only a mat- 
ter of conjecture —whose figure stands forth like 
that of a tom-cat on the ridge-pole of a barn at 
midnight. Need I mention his name ? When 
Tyro took his afternoon drive down Apprian Way 
with his four-in-hand, the magnificence of his 
equipage was a sight for the immortal gods and 
small boys to gaze upon. And when he rode forth 
in the morning toward the halls of the Praetors 
to perform his official duties, one servant carry- 
ing stilus and tablet, and the other propelHng a 
wheelbarrow to collect fees, the plebs stood back 



Ve Roma7i Stenographer 159 

in silent awe, and the patricians retired for pret- 
zels and beer. To show in what high esteem this 
noble Roman was held by his contemporaries I 
will read the following from Horace (B. 13, Ode 
9), leave of Brother Edwards being first had and 
obtained: 

O, Tyro! in thy hours of ease, 

High-priced, disgruntled, hard to please, 

When troubled printers try to make 

Sufficient copy for a take; 

And striving long, yet fail to find 

That which will suit the public mind: 

O, then ! that thou would'st condescend, 

Those shiv'ring devils to befriend. 

Into the Forum, thou could'st go, 

Report a speech by Cicero, 

Transcribe the same, on jujube paste 

Run off the copies in great haste. 

But thou hast earned enough of gold; 

Thy marv'lous skill has oft' been told, 

Thy services can not be had. • 

How melancholy, O, how sad. 

That Rome's most brilliant gems of thought 

Are spoken but to be forgot! 

As long as Rome was free, the stenographers 
were the favorite sons of fortune. But revolu- 
tion and invasion laid waste the temples of the 
gods and banished the tutelar divinities. The 
cackling of the geese could no longer save the 
walls of Rome, nor the bacon of the stenograph- 
ers. A change came o ' er the spirit of their dreams. 



l6o Ve Romayi Stenographer 

The superb palaces and porticos, by which had 
rolled the ivory chariots of Maiirius and Ccesar 
moldered into dust. The laureled fasces, the 
golden eagles, the shouting legions, the captives, 
the pictured cities and the triumphal processions 
were indeed wanting. The scepter passed away 
from Rome; and the glory of the stenographers 
departed. They had reduced to enduring form 
by their art preservative the triumphs of philos- 
ophy. Their captives were the hearts of admir- 
ing nations who had offered the just tribute of 
their cash. But their daj'S were numbered and 
they must bite the dust. Why this change? Ac- 
cording to Plutarch, some genius in an evil hour 
invented a machine, into the hopper of which the 
stenographer could cast his notes, and a printed 
transcript w^as run off, for which "no more was 
charged than usual rates, and extra lithographic 
copies, at but slight additional expense. ' ' A cor- 
poration was formed, which bought the exclusive 
right to turn the crank within the walls of Rome, 
and thereby did they hope to run a corner. But 
those reporters, who viewed with a zealous eye 
the vast monopoly this machine was creating, 
took counsel one with another that they, forsooth, 
might hit upon some device to multiply second 
copies as the sands on the seashore. The result 
of their endeavors was the discovery that a pan of 



Ve Roina7i Stenographer i6i 

putty would produce wonderful facsimile copies 
in any required number at slight additional cost. 
Competition now waxed fast and furious. The 
profession became divided into two parties. The 
battle cry was "putty vs. machinery." The time- 
honored rates of their ancestors were ruthlessly 
reduced. Scouts were sent abroad throughout 
the city to secure patronage. Three or four ste- 
nographers did lay claim to the same case. They 
stood in line on the Ides and Kalends of the month 
to gather in divorces until at last it was with diffi- 
culty that an advocate could be persuaded to al- 
low his case to be reported at all, and then only 
on presentation of a chrorao. Actus est de stenog- 
raphico; or, in other words, the jig was up. 

Today as you visit the Eternal city, no friend- 
ly hand grasps yours with a cordial invitation to 
take a "smile" — at the same time enquiring if 
you have a case to be reported. Ask for a ste- 
nographer, and the shopkeeper will tell you that 
he has disposed of the last one he had. The 
monks and soldiers will shake their heads and 
view you with suspicion. Direcft your footsteps 
down into the catacombs, and you will find the 
resting place of that machine. And this is his 
epitaph : 



1 62 Ye Roman Sietiograpker 

^''Here lies a youth ^ who died of vain 
ambition and too much copy.** 

— Browne* s Phonographic Monthly 
February^ 1880. 



^{#d 



Of this edition one hundred copies have been 
printed and the type distributed. 

Each copy is numbered^ and this copy is 
// 



Number / 



i 



INDEX 



Page 

A Court Reporter's Catastrophe, 

Harry Eastman, 74 

A Question of Speed, (Unknown) 109 

A Recordin' Angel, S. H. Gray, 58 

A Reporter's Ravin', W. E. McDerraut, 41 

Antiquity of Shorthand, The, 

George Maynard, 17 

Curiosities of Shorthand, The, 

Eugene L. Dider 23 

Development of Phonography, The, 

George Maynard, 37 

Fin de Siecle Shorthand, J. L, Driscol, 46 

Future of Stenography, The, EBB, 54 

Historical Value of Shorthand, The, 

Frank E. Nevins, 12 

How Not To Do It, T/ie Phonetic Journal, 67 
Importance of Reading Shorthand Journals, 

The, Frank Harrison, 65 

Individuality in Shorthand, The Phonetic 

Journal, 77 

Its Influences, Sanders' Shorthand 

Gazette, 64 

Medical Expert on the Stand, The, 

Fred T. Leport, 89 



Page 
My Trial Trip, Bates Torrey, 92 

Newspaper Reporting, George Maynard, 83 

Phonograplier Triumphant, The, 

George Maynard, 99 

Phonographic Collaboration, 

The Phonetic J 02i7'7ial, 104 

Shorthand, Thomas Shelton, 128 

Shorthand as an Art, Isaac S. Dement, 112 

Shorthand in Journalism, A. E. Leon, 114 

Shorthand Writer, The, James Henry Lewis, 123 
Silent Man, The, Charles Currier Beale, 5 

Some Advantages to be Derived from the 
Study of Phonography, 

W. Cannan Smith, 124 

Speed in Shorthand, The Phonetic Jcnriial , 129 
Study of Shorthand, The, Max in 

Browne'' s Phonographic Monthly^ 144 
The Antiquity of Shorthand, 

George Maynard, 17 

The Curiosities of Shorthand, 

Eugene L. Dider, 23 

The Development of Phonography, 

George Maynard, 37 

The Future of Stenography, EBB, 54 

The Historical Value of Shorthand, 

Frank E. Nevins, 12 

The Importance of Reading Shorthand 

Journals, Frank Harrison, 65 



Page 

The Medical Expert on the Stand, 

Fred T. Leport, 89 
The Phonographer Triumphant, 

George Maynard, 99 

The Shorthand Writer, James Henry Lewis, 123 

The Silent Man, Charles Currier Beale, 5 
The Study of Shorthand, Max, in 

Brc'vne'' s Phonographic Monthly, 144 
The Value of a Shorthand Library, 

George Maynard, 60 

Text and Context, George Maynard, 140 

Theory Versus Practice, George Maynard, 150 
Value of a Shorthand Library, The, 

George Maynard, 60 

Ye Roman Stenographer, James Abbott, 155 



^^ 



ERRATA. 

P. 9, line 14, last word repeated in line 15. 

P. 26, 6th line from foot of page, last word should 
be from instead of form. 

P. 62, line 3, 2nd paragraph second word should be 
undoubtedly. 

P. 66, - paging reversed. In line 17 last word re- 
peated in line 18. 

P. 107, line 6, possibly should be possible. 

P. 114, line 14, 4th word should be relentless. 

P. 125, line 1, second paragraph, sixth word mis- 
spelled. 

There may be other typographical and mechanical 
errors which mav have been overlooked. 



Pastr tl)is in your tap^ of "Qltfp ^Urnt Ulan/* 

ADDITIONAIv ERRATA. 

It has just been discovered that a very serious error 
occurs on page 98. In making the typewritten copj' ~ 
over 25 years ago -- from which the type for the book 
was set, an entire Hne in the original printed article was 
omitted, and when type was set copy was not verified. 
The sentence beginning at line 8, should read: "— Ivet 
them sit on 'Bug Ivight' down the harbor, or let their 
clamor be drowned b\' the shrieks of the whistling bouy 
ofif the 'Graves.' " 

P. 156, first line of paragraph should read: "As now 
in this Western Metropolis, so then in" — Note change 
in punctuation. 

Same paragraph, 4th line, "azes" should be "ases." 

P. 158, 7th line, — in some copies -- last word should 
be "these." 

P. 158, 3rd line of paragraph, "power" should read 
"tower." 



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